Word: mansfield
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...know it happened. The idea crashes through the barrier of your typical illusions of parents/grandparents--sterile virgins who exist only in the context of...well, you. Breaking down these types of barriers is exactly what director Patricia Rozema attempts to do in her rather unorthodox adaptation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Indeed, Rozema crashes through the "garden party" of archetypal Austen movies (think Emma Thompson and Kate Winslett running breathless over the moor in Sense and Sensibility) to present a more richly satirical piece full of innuendo, witticism, and blatant sexuality. Yes, you heard right: sex in a Jane Austen...
Rozema's adaptation centers around her attempt to bring Jane Austen herself into the story through the character of Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor), our heroine. Rescued as a girl from her family's poverty by a wealthy uncle, Fanny moves to Mansfield Park, where she lives as a quasi-servant--constantly aware of her secondary status--for the duration of the story. In the novel, Fanny is quaintly moral, and pretty much chock-full of sugar and spice and everything nice. But Rozema has taken Fanny to new heights by giving her a boldness and sauciness which the director...
...satire that's not entirely Austen. Of course, the story itself mocks many of the mores of the society Austen depicts, and the movie, accordingly, is not without some excellent moments (Harold Pinter makes an excellent pre-Victorian patriarch, dropping proper ultimatums right and left). But the new Mansfield Park, Rozema-style, takes the satire to a new level, mocking an entire era and bringing to the surface its deficiencies and ridiculousness. The criticism of the Antiguan slave trade in particular, less prominent in the novel, is quite visually brought to life in the film. By attempting to bring Austen...
...character with the brash nature of the adaptation. Amazingly, the director has planned her story in a way that makes this acceptable by keeping with her more open, admittedly "extreme" tone throughout the movie, Rozema has us prepped for what would be the unthinkable--a sex scene (gasp!) in Mansfield Park...
...want it by putting us through a more turbid, uninhibited version of what is coldly reserved from the novel. Rozema has said that she thinks of Fanny Price as a "test" created by Austen to experiment with the reactions of those around her. Certainly Rozema has made Fanny and Mansfield itself into a test of her own. But can America handle Austen with a little modern spice...