Mansfield Park - Movie Adaptations Ranked

Mansfield Park

It's harder for me to like this story because I find so many of the characters unlovable.  Fanny is not the most exciting character, but I do like her.  She is constantly being used and abused by all her relations who keep reminding her how worthless and unimportant she is.  There is really only the one exception, her cousin Edmund.  But even he ignores her and overlooks her needs during his infatuation with Mary.  So, yes, she might not be exciting, but she's essentially Cinderella.  And how can she be an exciting character when they don't let her do anything?  They treat her like a servant and an unpaid servant.  But I think she's sweet and tries really hard to be a good person and I like her the better for it.

Everyone else is rubbish.  Oh, Lady Bertram is sweet, she's just useless.  But she does love Fanny and that's kind of sweet in a way.  Lord Bertram actually realizes she's better than his daughters but treats her harshly for not bowing to his will and marrying a bad man.

I do sort of wish that she could have ended up with the bad boy and reformed him.  But in reality, I also agree with Austen that he would never have changed and that she would have been miserable.  It's just that I don't think Edmund deserved her after the whole thing with Mary Crawford, but he, I guess, he wasn't so bad as all that.  Fanny was happy with him so I suppose it's all ok.

The sisters and Aunt Norris are simply intolerable.   I love the discussion of Mansfield Park in the movie The Jane Austen Book Club, more than I love the story itself.  Mainly because all the people aside from Fanny are so awful, I don't like watching the story unfold.

1. Mansfield Park 1983 mini-series

         This is long but a well-done, faithful adaptation.  I still don't love this story (even if she is faithful and "Horton Hatches the Egg", sorry Jane Austen).  All the characters in it are pretty much awful and abusive to Fanny.

         Despite their saying they will have to treat Fanny properly and with delicacy, they don't.  Sir Thomas is barely around, Aunt Norris is incredibly heinous.  Aunt Norris is always asking Fanny to do everything that is even remotely unpleasant because she won't do anything for herself.  And then she denies her a fire in her room and chastises her for being lazy when she has a headache.  Even the Miss Bertrams, who are also wretched, acknowledge that Fanny is the last person in the world who is lazy.

         Lady Bertram is pretty great in this version though.  Constantly lying about on couches and being useless.  Her quiet voice and sweet uselessness is charming in a way.  Everyone loves her, they accept that she is useless.  It's cute that she at least values Fanny's company and is not being abusive on purpose.  I love that she offers Fanny one of pug's puppies because she loves her and knows that Fanny will treat the dog better than her daughters would.

         I like that Sir Thomas Bertram is a busy man but the moment he found out that Fanny has been denied fires and such because of Aunt Norris he rectifies it.  When he realizes that Fanny is quite grown up and pretty, he throws her a ball.  It's a coming-out ball and she's immensely excited about it.  Fanny's brother gets to attend and they are so happy to see each other.  It's adorable.

         In this version, we have to listen to Edmund go on and on about Mary Crawford and how much he loves her and it's irritating.  This Edmund also takes her horse and essentially gives it over to Mary's use and ignores Fanny like everyone else.  I really don't think he deserves her.

         The Crawford's are exceptionally oily in this version.  As much as I wish that Fanny ended up with someone who saw her merits and cared about her, I don't trust this Henry any more than Fanny does.  In this version, there is even some weird trickery with a necklace.  Mary gives it to her only to find out later it was from Henry and then they try to claim she knew and it's all rubbish.

         Fanny is Cinderella in this version.  She is sweet, kind, hard-working.  She never has a mean thing to say about anyone, always treats everyone as she ought to and she never does anything wrong.  So, in this version when Mary Crawford tries to blame all the bad behavior of Maria and Henry on Fanny, it's entirely baseless and everyone knows it.

         At four and half hours long this is a faithful adaptation but I find it hard to watch that many hours of abuse towards Fanny, the only member of Mansfield Park who deserves good treatment.  I don't love this version, but it's certainly better than the confused and inconsistent 1999 Mansfield Park.

2.  Mansfield Park 2007

This version of Mansfield Park is not the most accurate, nor the most fanciful.  This Sir Thomas says unnecessarily mean things.  It's just not that good.  It's not terrible but it's kind of meh.  The story does take some detours from the original, but they are mostly in keeping with the tone of the original.  For instance, Fanny doesn't go home, but she is left behind at Mansfield alone to contemplate why she doesn't want to marry Mr. Crawford.  

I like that this Fanny and Edmund seem to have a decent chemistry.  I do like this Edmund.  I think he does a good job of playing the role in a believable and fairly sympathetic way.  This Aunt Norris is suitably horrible.  I sort of like that Lady Bertram plays an advocate role for Fanny in the end.  Helping to give them time alone in the garden so Edmund who has just realized he likes Fanny can have a chance to do something about it.  It is odd the way they have him realize suddenly and be chasing her through the house.  But it's ok.

I really don't like this Sir Thomas.  He is both a fool and a mean person.  He says unnecessary things to Fanny and they are mean.  He shows up at long last and says nice things to everyone and tells Fanny he thinks she hasn't improved one jot in the last eight years of growing up.  In a rigidly polite society who would say this?  Ok, Aunt Norris would say this, but not Sir Thomas.  Right in front of the whole family, he takes her down that way.  It's cruel for no reason.  I hate it.  

The whole movie is filmed in one location.  So it leads to some interesting choices.  They don't send Fanny home to Portsmouth.  Apparently, they didn't find any rooms in the house that they thought were suitable for dancing.  So, they hold the ball in the garden in the grass.  And they hold the wedding for Fanny and Edmund there as well in this movie.  

I don't really like this movie, but is at least a coherent story that's not offensive for failing to address important social issues nor is it creepy or downright irritating and painful to watch.  So, it comes in above the 1999 Mansfield Park for me. 

3. Mansfield Park 1999

         This movie is just different.  It's not Mansfield Park.  It's more of a retelling with some different twists.  It keeps the base of the story and adds a modern sensibility for social justice issues.   I can't stand it.

         What makes this movie unpleasant is not the added themes of slavery, or the new way they interpret Fanny, it's that the film is neither Mansfield Park nor a consistent modern retelling.  Slavery is introduced, and then not really discussed.  If you introduce slavery you need to have it be more talked about, all the characters need to engage with it.

         Tom is supposedly a drunken wreck because he is super guilty about slavery.  So, in this film, Tom comes home from Antiga early because he can't stand the slavery, shows up at home and basically says "yes, those lovely slaves who are all paying for this stupid party," and then we immediately cut to "oh, I've had a great idea, let's put on a lavish play."  We don't see much of the play preparations, but we see lavish costumes and indelicate rehearsals without a care in the world for expense.

I'm drunk because I hate our family and slavery

Five seconds later... I know! Let's have a play!

         So, Tom is upset that slavery is paying for Mansfield Park, but he sticks around to waste a ton of that money on an improper and extremely extravagant home theater pursuit.  You can't just drop slavery into the story and have a character be like, you're all a waste because your lavish lives are built on blood money, and oh by the by, let's hold a play, I feel like using up all that blood money for something even more foolish and less worthwhile.  I mean, really!  If he is going to be so guilty about slavery he won't stay home, he should have a more convincing character arc where he tries to use his influential position to abolish it, or something.  It's your modern retelling, do something better with it than this.

Also, I'm sorry, but what is this?  Is Tom in blackface?

         Let's not even mention the fact that this version is trying to be more bold and modern and they don't have any other characters really engage with the idea of slavery.  Fanny and Edmund talk of it in passing as a thing that pays for their lifestyle and neither says anything after that, guilty or otherwise.  The only time Fanny engages with it after that is when she flees from the house when Sir Thomas offers to hold a ball for her because she doesn't want to be sold off like one of the slaves.  Holding a ball for Fanny was actually a kind gesture, more akin to a birthday party, or rather a quinceañera to show that Sir Bertram notices she's grown up and is a lady now.  Fanny was excited about it, not afraid she was being sold off to suitors. 

This is how we're handling it?

Oh, I forgot we did have one moment more of engagement with slavery, the worst moment of all, Tom's art from the trip.  Fanny and the audience get treated to graphic depictions of rape and torture of enslaved black people at the hands of the white "neighbors" and Sir Bertram.  When Sir Bertram finds Fanny looking at this art he yells at Fanny to go to her room.  He smacks the book from her hand, shouts at her, burns the paper in the fire and we are expecting a really intense resolution to the whole thing.  Then we never discuss it again.  We jump straight into Fanny finding Crawford and Maria having sex.  And that is the emotional climax of the film.  That!  The whole family frets over Maria's misdeeds and we never mention slavery, rape, or torture again.  I mean really.  You cannot introduce rape and torture and not react to it or have the characters pretend it didn't happen or react to it.  It's upsetting.

There there, I know that sex is way worse than rape and torture.

         That brings us to Fanny's portrayal.  Fanny is meant to be a person of such solid morals that she never wavers on what is right and correct.  Not so in this movie.  In this movie, Fanny wavers on everything it would seem.  She goes home because she won't marry Henry Crawford.  Then she wavers on the fear of being impoverished and agrees to marry him.  Then she refuses him once again, very cruelly, the next day.  Her sister Susan asks Fanny "are you certain?"  Fanny's reply is telling for how they portray her "I have no talent for certainty, Susie."  Well, then you aren't the Fanny Price that we all respect.

I like you, you handsome devil.

I can't marry you.

Ok, I'll marry you.

         It is hard to feel sorry for a Fanny who toys with the emotions of others.  This version makes Fanny unsympathetic, despite all the abuse and unkind behavior she has suffered.  She is no longer the sympathetic Cinderella character we all want to find happiness.  She was cruel to Henry and that's a terrible shame.  Since this isn't a faithful adaptation and since they made Henry feel like a person who genuinely loves Fanny, is genuinely charming, and she abuses that with her poor behavior.  Agreeing to an engagement and then turning it down the very next day.  Fanny is accused of being responsible for the behavior of Henry Crawford and therefore his affair with Maria.  In the book, it's a baseless accusation and a way for Mary Crawford to excuse her brother from bad behavior.  If only you'd married him, they could have had an affair, you could have been miserable, and nobody would have to be disgraced.  Mary essentially says this but in the other version blaming bad behavior on the only person who has done nothing wrong is clearly ridiculous.  In this version, the accusation is not false.  A very strong argument could be made that Henry fell into the affair with Maria because Fanny broke his heart, by accepting and then refusing his proposal so cruelly.

You're handsome, but no.

Ok, why not?

         Since this isn't really Mansfield Park they should have let Henry reform under Fanny's influence and have them both be happy together.  They should have either reformed Mary and had her marry Edmund or both of them end up alone because they both used Fanny so badly.  Every time I encounter this story there's always a part of me that really wants to see Henry reform and Fanny end up with him.  This Henry seems to genuinely care for her and I can't stand how she treats him.  Also, I don't think Edmund deserves her after all he put her through while pursuing Mary Crawford.

Just kidding I don't think I will marry you.

         I never thought Fanny was a boring character.  I thought she wasn't allowed to do anything of interest because she is Cinderella in her family.  I did like that they portray Fanny as being emotional and crying in the corridors where nobody can see her.  I just wish they'd either kept her character strong or let her marry Henry and truly reform him.  I also like the detail of Aunt Norris having Fanny left on the doorstep of Mansfield Park for two hours and blaming Fanny for it, not apologizing.  I like that Fanny writes stories and sends them to Susie throughout.  I don't like that they use them as some sort of weird moral.  Shouting "remember, run mad as often as you like, but don't faint."  It's really odd.  Also, if you're going to turn her into a strange Jane Austen figure you should at least address that she is trying to get her work published (before the end when Edmund has done it for her), maybe even say she wants to support herself that way and not rely on slave money, that would be a nice way to make it all tie in.

I could have aspirations of my own I suppose, but I don't.

         In short, it is not the introduction of slavery that I mind, it's that it isn't carried far enough or treated thoughtfully.  If you aren't going to treat the subject properly you'd better not attempt it.  The movie toyed with the characters and neither gave them new arcs to suit their new portrayal and accommodate the theme of slavery nor allowed them to suit their old arcs.  They didn't make Mansfield Park or a new story.  They did half of both and accomplished neither.  This is precisely why the movie fell flat for so many people who wanted to like it.

         I wouldn't be surprised if a remake with more slavery, more engagement with the topic, more thoughtful and deep conversations on it didn't do better in the end.  Despite the claims to the contrary, this movie was not ill-received because it was too bold.  It was just badly done.  It's not the sex or the portrayal of dark things that are wrong with this movie.  It's the way they bounce from scenes telling you that slavery and rape/torture exist in the world to playing at theater and tea parties where the worst thing in the plot is that Maria has run away with Crawford.  The emotional climax is that Maria has run away with Mr. Crawford?  Directly after we found out about rape and torture?  Are you kidding?  Even our Fanny doesn't say anything more on the topic or write about it?  It's upsetting to have the topic introduced and brushed aside.

Rushworth is so shocked by this treatment of slavery in this film that he's nearly incapacitated.  Only Aunt Norris approves.

         I still hate the majority of the characters in this story.  I feel bad for Rushworth even though he is excessively dim.  I can't stand the Miss Bertrams or Aunt Norris.  Aunt Norris is more plainly cruel but in a smaller role in this film.  I hate Mary Crawford.  I like that Fanny thinks seriously about marrying Henry, but hate that she refuses, accepts, and then refuses him again.  So very dumb and inappropriate.  I don't trust Henry, but I do really want him to reform.  He was so much closer to reform in this adaptation that it's even more criminal what they do with the story.

Yes, one might be driven to drink in this Mansfield Park.

         I do like that the movie explains Lady Bertram's uselessness as part of an addiction to Laudanum.  I like the way we see how women are faced with difficult choices about their future security; but not the way this film makes Fanny accept and refuse the proposal of Henry.  It would have been enough to have her say her heart had changed many times on the subject of Henry.  Or even that she feared poverty but still couldn't accept him. I do like that they use the bit about the starling who cannot get out to draw parallels between the misery of any human trapped by circumstances, Fanny, women in this time, and slaves.

         I like that we see more feeling and nuance from Fanny.  Frances O'Connor does a lovely job with the part she is given, I just don't like the story the movie ultimately has her tell.  Young Fanny is also completely adorable and I love her in this movie.

         I can't stand the ending of this film.  Not only is there another awkward kiss (see Persuasion for the worst one) the scenes just before and after that try to wrap up the rest of the storylines are terrible.  I can't stand the way the rest of the arcs are wrapped by NOT telling you what happened.  A freeze frame with Fanny's narration "It could have turned out differently, I suppose. But it didn't" tells us nothing and truly irritates.  Julia gets a letter from Yates, and you only know what that means if you've read or watched other versions.  This version doesn't tell you she runs off with him.  She gets the letter and we're told "it could have turned out differently".  What could?  What happens?  Could it have been different than nothing?  What exactly did it turn out as?  Are you assuming we know the story you're telling?  Because that makes you a lazy storyteller for a start.  And since you clearly aren't telling the story of Mansfield Park,  how should we know the ending unless you tell us?  What rubbish!

Rather awkward long prelude to kiss

       
         What makes this all truly sad is that this could have been a better film.  Giving Fanny emotional performances allows her to have interest even as she is held back and restricted by her not being deemed equal with the Miss Bertrams.  This film could have allowed Fanny to really shine, but then we take back her cool newly dimensional character by making her not certain of anything.  This film could have addressed slavery thoughtfully I suppose, but it didn't.  It could have given life, and a modern twist, to the characters without taking it all back, but it didn't.  It could have all turned out differently, I suppose.  But it didn't.  Much to the ruination of both the attempts to address social issues and any hint of a coherent plot or character arcs.

         I can not be alone in thinking that this doesn't go far enough with the treatment of slavery.  And I can not be alone in thinking that this version of Fanny should end up with this version of Henry Crawford.

         So, I'm going to invent a new ending.  One that suits the story this version of Mansfield Park started to tell and then failed to stick with.

         I'm going to pretend that Fanny rides this white horse straight away to Henry Crawford and she accepts his proposal of marriage.  Maria runs away with someone else in London.  Fanny reforms Henry for the better.  They marry and are excessively happy.  He proves that love can change you for the better and he becomes a faithful attentive husband captivated by Fanny's beauty and wit.  I'm going to pretend that they run off to London to help abolish slavery and they come into better fortune as everyone at Mansfield Park becomes subject to its decline in prosperity on account of their abysmal conduct.  In my ending, both Fanny and Henry show all her rubbish relatives that they are happier without all of them and live happily ever after.  The end.

More Jane Austen discussions below:

To see my ranking of Every Jane Austen Adaptation, go here.
For a discussion of all the Pride and Prejudice adaptations, you can go here.
For a discussion of all the Persuasion adaptations, you can go here.
For a discussion of all the Sense and Sensibility adaptations, you can go here.
For a discussion of all the Emma adaptations, you can go here.
For my discussion of all the Northanger Abbey Adaptations, you can go here.

For my discussion of the Lady Susan Adaptation (Love and Friendship), you can go here. 

For my discussion of all the "Not-Quite-Austen's" you can go here.

I have a whole page dedicated to Jane Austen where you can find my rankings of different movie adaptations and essays etc.

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