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Mansfield Park
Metascore
71 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    This is an uncommonly intelligent film, smart and amusing too, and anyone who thinks it is not faithful to Austen doesn't know the author but only her plots.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Peter Stack
    100
    Intelligence and beauty -- and teasing romance -- shape Mansfield Park into a gorgeous, enchanting experience.
  3. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Paula Nechak
    91
    Daring, gorgeous.
  4. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Sarah Raskin
    90
    The only fault I found was a lengthy build to the story's political climax (there's a subplot about slavery), after which the film quickly seams up its unravelings and ends.
  5. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    90
    Rozema's handling of the entangled amours and social gamesmanship at Mansfield Park is delightful and the open-minded moviegoer will have a hard time resisting this stylish and stirring movie.
  6. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    88
    A thoughtful, engaging film.
  7. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    88
    A love story more involved than I can easily explain.
  8. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    83
    The Australian actress Frances O'Connor is a true find. She's as beautiful as the young Barbara Hershey, with a stare that's pensive yet playful, and she puts us in touch with the quiet battle of emotions in Fanny.
  9. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Diana Abu-Jaber
    83
    Piquant, playful, and, in many ways, just as appealing as blockbusters such as "Pride and Prejudice."
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    80
    Ms. Rozema has made a film whose satiric bite is sharper than that of the usual high-toned romantic costume drama.
  11. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    80
    Well acted, and it achieves a strong, smart, engaging life of its own.
  12. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    80
    It isn't Austen, but it's delicious fun.
  13. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    Why should we keep seeing Austen fresh, through our own, modern eyes? Because she's a writer who has never really left our field of vision. And, as this new Mansfield Park proves again, she never will.
  14. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Loses much of the book's complexity but gains dramatic power from a cleverly streamlined screenplay... and several persuasive performances. No previous movie has made Austen's vision seem so vivid and alive for contemporary times.
  15. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Curtis Morgan
    75
    The latest and loosest -- in the saucy sense of the word as well -- adaptation of (Austen's) sly comedies of uppercrust manners.
  16. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    O'Connor plays Fanny with an appealingly direct, unflinching gaze.
  17. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    75
    Enormously satisfying.
  18. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    75
    What's on the screen may not be a letter-perfect Mansfield Park, but something true to its spirit.
  19. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    Stylish and arrives at a satisfying cumulative weight, even if it isn't Austen pure.
  20. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
    70
    Rozema seems determined to defrill the Austen trend and charge it with a fiercer sort of femininity.
  21. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Andy Klein
    70
    O'Connor as Fanny is irresistibly appealing.
  22. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    70
    Quick and funny, and a refreshing break from period-film stuffiness.
  23. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    70
    Although Mansfield Park is an enjoyable film, you can't help but wish that it were as brave, feisty and unconventional as it keeps telling us its heroine is.
  24. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    62
    "Run mad whenever you choose, but do not faint," Austen wrote in her early journals. Despite its brazen politics, Mansfield Park never goes giddily amok as promised.
  25. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    60
    An engaging bit of entertainment.
  26. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    60
    It's an interesting take, and it always holds our interest, but it's finally too ham-fisted to be a completely winning one.
  27. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Ronnie Scheib
    60
    There's something more than a little perverse about taking one of the most timid, self-effacing heroines in English literature and turning her into a paragon of modern free-spirited womanhood.
  28. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Andy Seiler
    50
    Not since Demi Moore lived happily ever after in "The Scarlet Letter" has a filmmaker felt so free to fudge a famous plot.
  29. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Justine Elias
    50
    In trying so hard to entertain, ends up sabotaging itself.
  30. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    50
    But there's little sense of a longer dramatic arc stretching across the characters: Rozema can't seem to hold a single tone for more than a few minutes, and she has too many other axes to grind besides just getting the story up on the screen.
  31. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    40
    A confusing jumble of historical drama and modern social essay that only serves to cloud the whole field of Jane Austen studies.
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