(no subject)
So a review of Mansfield Park because I know many of you are expecting it :P
Does it surprise you to know I rather enjoyed it? Of course it wasn't actually Mansfield Park so...
Well that sentence sums it up a little really. It was a nice way to spend a sunday evening and I was laughing and awwwwwing along at the end and really it was all perfectly charming but despite using quite large chunks of the actual text it wasn't really very much like the book I remember.
The programme itself first. The only real big negative I thought of (and it did annoy me all the way through the second half) was the Amazing Vanishing Julia. From the moment she ran out of the rehersals for the play I can't think of a single time we saw her again.. presumeably she was at the wedding but I don't remember it and after that nothing. She was mentioned once as being with Maria but in lists of the children she was rather absent...
Other than that the problems were mostly book realted. The actors were all great but then with Douglas Hodge and James D'Arcy and Jemma Redgrave of course they were and Billie Piper was fine too, as was Michelle Ryan coming from Eastenders. The camera work did tend to make me a little dizzy but I know it's fashinable to shoot things like that now so it's only a minor quibble.
For the negative (and there's surprisingly little and mostly qualified)
Well that wasn't Mrs Norris was it? Apart from her doom and gloom moments she was far too lively and pretty and perhaps that was because she was there rather than being a little apart from the family but it was a little odd and all her moralising but not even a hint of dislike for the play.
The siblings were all rather good and so was Mary but I don't think you could call the actor playing Henry wither short or plain and as they were left in the text it was rather annoying! Lady Bertram was vague and slightly selfish and rather lovely but Sir Thomas, when seen only from Fanny's perspective turned into a rather horrible man and one prone to sudden changes of mood which perhaps is how she sees him but isn't quite how he is in the book though again a minor quibble.
Fanny... well now you know what's coming I suppose. Fanny is a quiet and dignified young lady who can't walk far and becomes pale and nearly faints in oppressive heat and rides for her health and is still prone to tears even when grown and her goodness and piety go hand in hand.
That character onscreen was fun and tomboyish and ran everywhere and had a huge heart but suddenly came out with comments about slavery from nowhere and I could never quite decide if her goodness came from a natural piety and feeling or from her situation... I half felt that she would have liked to dance and be gay and rush about like her cousins except not in the play except... well she was a little too confused for my liking. It was all a little rushed for the main characters in my opinion.
It was fun though and I suppose if it brings new readers to Austen... though they'll ahte the book if that's what they expect I fear :-S
On a slightly random point that's the first time I've seen an actor pull of the look of suddenly seeing someone in a different light quite so obviously. It actually looked a little as if he'd been literally dazzled *g*
Overall a success I guess, though with a fair amount of room for improvement along the way.
So your thoughts dear flist? When you get to see it of course those who sensibly recorded it and slept...
Does it surprise you to know I rather enjoyed it? Of course it wasn't actually Mansfield Park so...
Well that sentence sums it up a little really. It was a nice way to spend a sunday evening and I was laughing and awwwwwing along at the end and really it was all perfectly charming but despite using quite large chunks of the actual text it wasn't really very much like the book I remember.
The programme itself first. The only real big negative I thought of (and it did annoy me all the way through the second half) was the Amazing Vanishing Julia. From the moment she ran out of the rehersals for the play I can't think of a single time we saw her again.. presumeably she was at the wedding but I don't remember it and after that nothing. She was mentioned once as being with Maria but in lists of the children she was rather absent...
Other than that the problems were mostly book realted. The actors were all great but then with Douglas Hodge and James D'Arcy and Jemma Redgrave of course they were and Billie Piper was fine too, as was Michelle Ryan coming from Eastenders. The camera work did tend to make me a little dizzy but I know it's fashinable to shoot things like that now so it's only a minor quibble.
For the negative (and there's surprisingly little and mostly qualified)
Well that wasn't Mrs Norris was it? Apart from her doom and gloom moments she was far too lively and pretty and perhaps that was because she was there rather than being a little apart from the family but it was a little odd and all her moralising but not even a hint of dislike for the play.
The siblings were all rather good and so was Mary but I don't think you could call the actor playing Henry wither short or plain and as they were left in the text it was rather annoying! Lady Bertram was vague and slightly selfish and rather lovely but Sir Thomas, when seen only from Fanny's perspective turned into a rather horrible man and one prone to sudden changes of mood which perhaps is how she sees him but isn't quite how he is in the book though again a minor quibble.
Fanny... well now you know what's coming I suppose. Fanny is a quiet and dignified young lady who can't walk far and becomes pale and nearly faints in oppressive heat and rides for her health and is still prone to tears even when grown and her goodness and piety go hand in hand.
That character onscreen was fun and tomboyish and ran everywhere and had a huge heart but suddenly came out with comments about slavery from nowhere and I could never quite decide if her goodness came from a natural piety and feeling or from her situation... I half felt that she would have liked to dance and be gay and rush about like her cousins except not in the play except... well she was a little too confused for my liking. It was all a little rushed for the main characters in my opinion.
It was fun though and I suppose if it brings new readers to Austen... though they'll ahte the book if that's what they expect I fear :-S
On a slightly random point that's the first time I've seen an actor pull of the look of suddenly seeing someone in a different light quite so obviously. It actually looked a little as if he'd been literally dazzled *g*
Overall a success I guess, though with a fair amount of room for improvement along the way.
So your thoughts dear flist? When you get to see it of course those who sensibly recorded it and slept...