BelSports
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
gordonb-59587
I wish reviewers would review movies based on their own merit and not compare it to the original book or other previously movies of the story. Since I have not read the book, I really don't care if it is "true to the book." I just want to watch and enjoy the movie. This was a interesting, romantic love story with somewhat complicated plots running through the several characters love lives. Nice to see a movie without all the sex and violence director think they have to put in to get an audience. The English accents, particularly when the voices were hushed were hard to understand. My wife and I watched the first few minutes and turned to each other and we each said, "I didn't understand any of that." Beautiful country side and settings.
hamoo
the thought "why write another review when there are already 177 of them" has already crossed my mind, so i'm just going to give my opinion: a lot of reviews crucified this movie because it doesn't jibe with the book. i didn't read the book, so it wasn't a consideration. i liked it because no one got blown up or shot. it was quite sedate; it made me fall asleep, so i missed a lot of it. i'm planning on going back and watching it again. movies that make me fall asleep get an extra star. i don't need to stay awake with my adrenaline pumping. also, i'm planing on listening to the audiobook next. maybe the contrapositive of naysayers holds true; maybe i won't like the audiobook because it doesn't jibe with the movie. typically, i like movies like "v" and "law abiding citizen", but i like movies like this also because they help me relax. i really don't need a whole lot of entertaining.
Shaundra McTeer
Remember that Jane Austen book you read where the protagonist wrote nonsensical stories and ran around her uncle's house shrieking like a whackjob? No? Maybe I can remind you of a bit more.The protagonist Fanny is an older woman who falls in love with her lipstick-wearing, teenage-boyish cousin Edmund. But Edmund falls in love with another cougar, Mary, who lives nearby. Mary the Cougar's brother Henry goes after Fanny. Fanny waffles about marrying Henry. Eventually she agrees. Then she changes her mind.Edmund's father, Sir Thomas, is a rapist who likes to torture his slaves for kicks. Sir Thomas also loves to letch on any woman within ten feet of him.Edmund also has a pretty sister named Maria - oh, wait, no. This Maria is a bit of a butterface. Julia is the pretty one, this time. Momma Bertram is addicted to drugs. Mrs. Norris appears in a scene or two, but isn't particularly evil, just kind of bitchy.Still not remembering? That's because this film is unrecognizable compared to the novel. The dialogue from the book is redistributed to the characters at random. Whole personalities are reworked. The entire point of the novel - staying true to your morals - is completely missed. Instead, this is a novel about angsty people who are trying to survive in a world controlled by The Patriarchy, in the form of the Evil Overlord Sir Thomas.Frankly, the whole film's ridiculous. It's what you get when a Jane Austen novel is done by a director like Patricia Rozema (who was, before this, best known for a small Canadian film about a lesbian threesome in an art gallery).The 2007 BBC version isn't great, but it's 100x better than this mess. Skip it.
madannsmom
Anyone who has ever read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen should not bother to watch this movie. Other than the characters having the same name and the house having the same name, there is no part of the book here. It is not a bad movie, it just is not Mansfield Park. Trying to squash the book into 2 hours and 21st century it makes it vulgar and crude. So many things are left out for want of time and you never really understand why Fanny dislikes Henry so. She never accepts Henry, her father doesn't leer at her like meat, Sir Thomas is not cruel and heartless. It is a shame that such a wonderful novel had to be turned into this drivel instead of trying to keep true to the story. Fanny isn't the type of woman who talks back, even as a child. It makes me sad that I gave up two hours to watch this.
