Mansfield Park

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Intelligence and beauty -- and teasing romance -- shape Mansfield Park into a gorgeous, enchanting experience.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Daring, gorgeous.

TNT RoughCut Sarah Raskin

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.

Newsweek David Ansen

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A love story more involved than I can easily explain.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A thoughtful, engaging film.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

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.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

Piquant, playful, and, in many ways, just as appealing as blockbusters such as "Pride and Prejudice."

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It isn't Austen, but it's delicious fun.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Ms. Rozema has made a film whose satiric bite is sharper than that of the usual high-toned romantic costume drama.

Time Richard Schickel

Well acted, and it achieves a strong, smart, engaging life of its own.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Enormously satisfying.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

O'Connor plays Fanny with an appealingly direct, unflinching gaze.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Stylish and arrives at a satisfying cumulative weight, even if it isn't Austen pure.

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

The latest and loosest -- in the saucy sense of the word as well -- adaptation of (Austen's) sly comedies of uppercrust manners.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

What's on the screen may not be a letter-perfect Mansfield Park, but something true to its spirit.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Rozema seems determined to defrill the Austen trend and charge it with a fiercer sort of femininity.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

O'Connor as Fanny is irresistibly appealing.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

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.

Film.com Robert Horton

Quick and funny, and a refreshing break from period-film stuffiness.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

"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.

TV Guide Ken Fox

An engaging bit of entertainment.

Chicago Reader Ronnie Scheib

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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's an interesting take, and it always holds our interest, but it's finally too ham-fisted to be a completely winning one.

Village Voice Justine Elias

In trying so hard to entertain, ends up sabotaging itself.

Variety Derek Elley

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.

USA Today Andy Seiler

Not since Demi Moore lived happily ever after in "The Scarlet Letter" has a filmmaker felt so free to fudge a famous plot.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A confusing jumble of historical drama and modern social essay that only serves to cloud the whole field of Jane Austen studies.