A Race Through Jane Austen

This past Sunday night's edition of “The Complete Jane Austen” (or, as perhaps would more accurately reflect the showings so far, “A Race through Jane Austen”) was an adaptation of Mansfield Park. While the newly revamped Masterpiece Classic may pride itself on presenting all six Austen novels, so far it's given short shrift to three of them. My general response when asked about my opinion of the movies so far has been that they've been “okay.” I enjoy watching them on Sunday evenings, but I don't find them memorable and I won't be buying them on DVD (I own nearly every other Austen adaptation done in the last 10 years).

As to the particulars of Sunday night's showing, I enjoyed the portrayal of certain characters – I thought Maria, Sir Thomas, and Mary Crawford were played well by the respective actors: Maria had the right balance for the daughter who is both dutiful and deceptive, Sir Thomas had a fairly good blend of roughness and yet some hidden gentleness, and Mary Crawford had a good handle on the appalling wittiness that makes her such a good character. I also thought that the woman who played Mrs. Norris did a good job, especially as that character can be overdone. As to the plot, I felt that the major points were covered, though certain elements were left out; but for an adaptation that barely reaches 90 minutes, what else could be done but to delete everything except the major points?

And that brings me to a few complaints. As to characters, I didn't care for the actress who played Fanny. While her character was dressed plainly and kept to the background, I didn't think that the actress did a good job of truly inhabiting the character. And Edmund . . . well, I think the best description I 've read of him in recent days has been that he resembled the groom from Tim Burton's recent production, “The Corpse Bride.” I kept wanting to fix his hair. Lady Bertram was far better portrayed by Lindsay Duncan in the 1999 version, and other characters from the novel were too much neglected – Julia was reduced to a stock character, Henry had little of the ambiguous appeal that he exhibits in the early part of the novel, and Fanny's family (apart from her brother) were cut altogether.

I think that these adaptations so far have been unsatisfying on various levels. If you don't know the stories from the novels, then the very brevity of the productions produces confusion as to who the characters are and why they're seemingly falling deeply in love after so little interaction. If you do know the stories from having read the novels, then the very brevity of the productions frustrates you since you know how much more there is to the story, how Austen's genius is not found in her plot lines alone. “Mansfield Park,” which did little more than present the bare bones of the plot line, failed to do justice to Austen's work. Perhaps one benefit of these adaptations is that they will inspire those unfamiliar with Austen's more obscure novels to pick them up and enjoy the stories in their fullness.

-Andrea Cavie