srah blah blah

Purple haze all in his brain

Mansfield Park is possibly my least favorite Jane Austen novel. I'm actually not sure exactly how I would rank all of her novels - it would be something like:

1. Persuasion/Pride & Prejudice (tie)
3. Northanger Abbey/Sense & Sensibility (tie)
5. Emma/Mansfield Park (tie)

I have a general idea of how much I liked them, but I've also never sat down and read each one in succession and my memories of the books are very much influenced by the movie versions. Mansfield Park, I think, suffers the worst from this, because I've never been satisfied by a movie version. Although I'm not that fond of Emma (the character or the book) I like the Gwyneth Paltrow movie and Clueless and that makes it a little more attractive.

Another problem is that the heroine is not very likable and - unlike Northanger Abbey's silly Catherine Morland - is not interesting enough to make up for it. Nor does she have a fascinating suitor like Mr Tilney. Altogether, Mary Crawford is much more interesting and has all of the clever lines in the book.

There is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry. Look where I will, I see that it is so; and I feel that it must be so, when I consider that it is, of all transactions, the one in which people expect most from others, and are least honest themselves.

What gentleman among you am I to have the pleasure of making love to?

Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

Mary's a wicked character who doesn't suit Edmund at all, and she uses her wit in meaner and more suggestive ways than - say - Elizabeth Bennet. She's still more likable than Fanny, who doesn't do much of anything other than mope. Fanny doesn't seem to have much of a journey as a character. Henry Crawford tries to seduce her, she doesn't give in and she comes out on the other side of it pretty much the same as she started. I guess it could be argued that it's Edmund - not Fanny - who has the journey in the book. He's tempted by flashy Mary Crawford but then comes to appreciate the loyalty of the stalwart Annabelle Veal Fanny Price.

The Austenpalooza version of Mansfield Park seemed to stick by the idea that it's Fanny's story, but doesn't add much to back it up. Again, like the others that came before it, the movie was weakened by the cuts that had to be made to fit it into the time slot and character development seems to have been the aspect that got the ax. It could have been interesting to see Edmund's fondness slowly develop into love for his cousin. They also could have shown the tension and the idea that Fanny might actually have been tempted by Henry Crawford's apparent kindness to her family, the contrast between his wealth and her family's lower-status life in Portsmouth and her lack of prospects and the hopelessness of her love for Edmund. Instead he seems to have been a temporary annoyance in her life. My friend and I laughed out loud at the way she ignored all of Henry Crawford's advances and occasionally even seemed to be ignorant that he was speaking at all.

Unfortunately that was not the (unintentionally) funniest part of the movie. That was when Edmund, after living under the same roof as Fanny for eight years, heard her say to his mother, "I like the purple" and immediately woke up and fell in love with her. What? It just happened like that? I also liked how his mother schemed to send them on a lavender-hunting expedition just to give them some time alone. "Lavender," said Fanny, just before he kissed her. My theory is that Edmund's ardor could be enflamed only by listing off shades of violet and Fanny finally found the key to unlock this purple passion. Aubergine! Lilac! Indigo! Heliotrope! If we had been treated to a Fanny-Edmund sex scene, that's what it would have sounded like. Ew.

And yet again, this one ended with waltzing around on a lawn. What is with the lawn-dancing scenes? When Mrs Bertram said, "Edmund and Fanny have invented a new dance!" or something, I shouted, "Oh god! That can't be the last line of the movie!" and spent the last few minutes cajoling the characters to say something else. Fortunately someone had some much less memorable line after that, so the movie didn't end on quite as terrible a note as I thought and feared that it would.

(ALRIGHT. I have made it this far without remarking on the physical attributes of the actors, but I can't hold it in anymore. Where did anyone get the idea that Billie Piper could pass as a natural blonde with those eyebrows? The eyebrows! The eyebrows! I might have been able to overlook a lot of these things in the movie if it weren't for those eyebrows! Also, Edmund had this weird stringy emo-hair that made him look like he should be in a terrible band that people on Never Mind the Buzzcocks would make fun of.)

Next week: Srah has to decide between the Superb Owl Commercials Extravaganza and Miss Austen Regrets. Srah is not particularly inspired by either.

srah - Monday, 28 January 2008 - 10:12 PM
Tags: books, jane austen, mansfield park, movies