Just when you thought the Jane Austen renaissance had run its course – there have been seven Austenian movies or mini-series in the last four years if you count Clueless, and Rachel Leigh Cook is set to star in an upcoming adaptation of Northanger Abbey -- along comes the first one that’s directed by a woman but doesn’t star Alicia Silverstone, Mansfield Park. Frances O’Connor (who co-stars with Brendan Fraser in the Bedazzled remake, and will appear in Spielberg’s next opus, A.I.) plays Fanny Price, yet another smart, educated, independent Englishwoman eyeball-deep in the romantic machinations of a well-to-do Georgian family.
While not as engaging as Emma or Sense and Sensibility -- or Clueless for that matter – this is undoubtedly the most inventively directed of the cycle. Patricia Rozema, who won an Emmy for her segment of “Yo Yo Ma Inspired by Bach,” allows Fanny occasional opportunities for fourth-wall breakage as she spins a light-hearted fictional narrative that parallels her own story. Interesting casting -- Jonny Lee Miller, Embeth Davidtz, Allesandro Nivola (Face/Off), and playwright Harold Pinter as the household head who paradoxically despises theatre – keeps things lively, as do an arresting soundtrack from Lesley Barber (A Price Above Rubies). B
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