I've been going on about this for ages, haven't I? And it wasn't all that good, was it? What can I say, I apologise whole-heartedly. Beautiful surroundings - check. Competent acting - check. Billie Piper being sweet - check.
Sure, it was all very pleasant, but in this post-Bleak House era, I'm afraid pleasant just doesn't cut it anymore. There was nothing especially bad about this production - it looked lovely and there were no awful performances. Unfortunately there was nothing especially great about it either, and the two hours washed over you without making much of an impression.
Mansfield Park-the-novel is wonderful but can hardly be described as exciting, as all the scandal and intrigue happens 'off camera', so the production really needed to tap into the subtlety of the characterisation. It didn't... there was no need to make Mary Crawford such a straight-forward villain, for example, and Mrs. Norris could have been funny as well as horrid.
I get as annoyed as everyone else when people say 'oh the book is better', but when you're dealing with Austen, you've got to accept that you have high standards to live up to, and we've been spoilt recently with Bleak House and Jane Eyre. Billie Piper and Blake Ritson did their best to make their charming but ultimately introverted characters likable, and succeeded for the most part, but they were battling against a production that was, to be frank, just a little dull.
Dull is certainly not a word that can be used to describe next week's adaptation, Northanger Abbey, so keep checking back during the week for my rather more upbeat preview. Also, take the short trip over to our sister-blog Trashionista, where they discuss the possible pitfalls of literary adaptations every single Friday!
[annawaits]
I felt totally let down by this. Almost to the point where I can't bear to watch Persuasion in a fortnight because of what they might do to it. The cast tried their best, but the script was rubbish considering the material there was to work with, the camerawork was awful in places (trust me, if I notice it then it must be bad!) and as for the ending...why didn't they just hold a lightbulb above his head as he came to the realisation that he loved her? Talk about melodrama, I was actually laughing!
I was also annoyed that far too much of it (the non-novel stuff) was borrowed from the 1997 film. I thought that was really lazy.
And no bad performances? Have disagree there. Mrs Norris was awful. All breathy and pathetic, instead of being sharp and pushy. Grrr.
(must say after that big rant that I'm no Austen scholar and I'm not particularly precious about it being different to the novels, but this just went too far)
Mansfield Park is always the most difficult Jane Austen to do!
The chief reason is that Fanny Price is the only heroine who really isn't very likeable. Unlike Lizzie Bennet, she is priggish, and ruthlessly self-righteous; even Elinor Dashwood and Anne Eliot have some sense of humour!
More than any other of the six main novels, this one shows the chasm between 19th and 21st century attitudes ie the punishment of Maria, the "shockingness" of Lovers Vows and the wrong-thinking of Mary and Henry Crawford.
Billie Piper did her best; but she's really just too spirited and courageous to be Fanny.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to be disappointed with this. Mansfield Park isn't one of Austen's most *immediate* novels, shall we say, and they just didn't seem to work out how they could make it enjoyable.
And you're right Gemma, Mrs. Norris was portrayed rather.... oddly. I can only imagine that it was how the director wanted her playing?!!