Hey, my names Kim and I'm 20 years old, I'm a bit of a rock chick with some probably dangerous views...
Hey, my names Kim and I'm 20 years old, I'm a bit of a rock chick with some probably dangerous views and beliefs but I'm proud of them. And I love the colour pink. And I can't stand Tony Blair. (sorry, don't mean to offend!)
Member since:03.08.2005
Reviews:22
Members who trust:2
Well, I'm not really sure where to start with this! I guess I should start right from the beginning - Mansfield Park. This TV dramatisation of a Jane Austin novel. I'll give you a basic plot overview:
Mansfield Park is the home of a wealthy family, the Bertram family. They take in a young and less well-off relative to give her the best education, and all the good advantages of being well-off. This lucky girl was Fanny Price. The poor girl is completely up-rooted from everything she knows, friends and family, house etc. You follow her through a series of events, including having to hold herself against the wealthy, and the poor and all about the sexual politics in the new world she is becoming accustomed to.
Now, for the DVD. I'll start with the actors, some of which I knew, and some I'd never heard of before, and after this disaster, probably never will again! Billie Piper, Jemma Redgrave, Maggie O'Neill, Douglas Hodge and James D'Arcy. I personally do not believe that above were the best actors/actresses for the job. Or maybe they were, and the dodgy directing played a huge part! Billie Piper, I believed, did not portray the character of Fanny Price well. For example, Fanny is meant to be a character that is not seen, nothing special, sort of blends into the background. The way she was played by Billie Piper, was that she was eye-catching, not only by looks but by personality as well. I also believed that Miss Piper had no real understanding of her character. I did however, feel emotion towards the character so she must have done a half-way decent job. I think she played the part well, with what she was given, I believe the directing had a big part to play in this disaster!
I also believed that Jemma Redgrave did not play the part of Mrs Bertram as well as maybe she could have done. She was too removed and just didn't suit the part at all! I think that all of the characters aren't really explained that brilliantly either, you just sort of assume that the young child running around with Billie Piper is her sister, it's never really explained! I also feel that they were all modernised, which is a very bad thing to do, especially with Jane Austins characters as it never really does them any justice!
All in all, I found the characters to be a bit one-dimensional and disappointing.
Now, I appreciate that trying to turn a novel like this, written by such an esteemed author is hard work. And it would be difficult to turn the full length of a novel into a half decent feature film lasting no longer than two hours, but surely they could have done a better job than this! Big sections of the book seemed to have been skipped, and the one thing that infuriated me the most was the replacing of the ball scene with ah picnic one! I think this stole a huge part of the depth and tension away from what it was meant to be!
Another thing that I thought was terrible was the filming, the camera seemed to wobble and it drove me mad! With an adaptation as bad as this, you'd at least thought the filming would be half decent, but no, you are going to be very disappointed!
I'm not sure what more I can say about this, except I wouldn't waste your money if I were you. It was so poor, I didn't even check out the extras on this DVD. The only reason that I bought it was because I'm quite a fan of Jane Austin's work. If you do like her though, I wouldn't buy this because you are likely to be very disappointed. All in all, I think this is possibly the worst adaptation of any novel that I have ever seen! The character portrayals are poor, the directing was poor, the filming was poor, it was all terrible! Sorry to anybody that did enjoy this, but I really can't see how!
xxx
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 2000 - Drama - Director: Giuseppe Tornatore - Original Language: Italian - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Matilde Piana
Patricia Rozema is a Canadian director with the nerve to helm smart, big budget movies, as ... more
she proves again inMansfield Park. She had her first hit with the quirkyI've Heard the Mermaids Singing(1987) in which the heroine, a mouse among art gallery sha...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Patricia Rozema is a Canadian director with the nerve to helm smart, big budget movies, as ... more
she proves again inMansfield Park. She had her first hit with the quirkyI've Heard the Mermaids Singing(1987) in which the heroine, a mouse among art gallery sha...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Spirited Fanny Price is sent by her poverty-stricken mother to live with her prosperous ... more
aunt and cousins at their grand country estate. Here, she struggles to adjust to aristocratic protocol and the daily reminders of her inferiority to her relatives. ...
![Mansfield Park [DVD] [2007]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78120607.jpg "Mansfield Park [DVD] [2007]")
![Mansfield Park [1999] [DVD] [2000]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78545416.jpg "Mansfield Park [1999] [DVD] [2000]")
Apr 2nd, 2007
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