rated on a 4-star scale screening venue : cornerhouse ( manchester ) released in the uk by buena vista international on march 31 , 2000 ; certificate 15 ; 110 minutes ; country of origin uk ; aspect ratio 1 . 85 : 1 directed by patricia rozema ; produced by sarah curtis . written by patricia rozema ; based on the novel " mansfield park " , letters and early journals by jane austen . photographed by michael coulter ; edited by martin walsh . one of these days i must train myself to read the novels of jane austen . so many people love them , but as of yet , i've been unable to comprehend them . her sentences are too long for me , and written in complex structures of defunct words -- unless i pause to absorb each one individually , they run past me like a foreign language . thank goodness for film adaptations . the latest is " mansfield park " , written and directed by patricia rozema , and based on the book austen was most proud of , as well as the author's letters and early journals . the nature of the additional source material means the movie's heroine is more like the real austen than the character in the book . this can't be too harmful , since most writers impose their own desires and values on the protagonists of their stories . the girl's name is fanny price ( frances o'connor ) , whose mother sent her away as a child , to live with her rich aunt lady bertram ( lindsay duncan ) in the lavish country estate of mansfield park . fanny has grown up knowing her place -- when to say " yes , ma'am " or shuffle off in a corner -- but releases her emotions through story writing , and confiding in her cousin edmund ( jonny lee miller ) . " mansfield park " is a generally light and funny film which invites us to watch fanny handle the coldness and pressure of her priggish relatives , and not only survive , but somehow prevail . i have no idea how much of this comes from the novel , and it's hard for me to analyse the film from that angle . this is not a position i enjoy . i feel out of my depth when watching a film based on a famous book that i haven't read . it's as if i'm missing some necessary piece of general knowledge . i suppose i must , however , try to respond to some of the charges that have been levelled at rozema's picture , which has become notorious among austen purists ( some of whom may even have seen it ) . one thing people are up in arms about is the making of fanny into a writer . from my ignorant point of view , this makes perfect sense : since fanny's environment prevents her from shouting out her thoughts , and a movie cannot contain a narration telling us what's going on in her head , we understand her feelings through what she writes . another controversy surrounds the way rozema explicitly reveals that mansfield park profits from the slave trade , something that was only hinted at in the book . again i would argue that this is unavoidable : in film , if something isn't on screen , it isn't anywhere , and besides , austen wouldn't have insinuated something if she'd wanted us to ignore it . then there are the claims regarding rozema's sex scenes -- which are ridiculous , because no such moments exist ! there is one brief glimpse of a breast , very late on in the film , as an incidental character is caught en flagrante . but plenty of hack journalists are making out that this is some sort of wild bonkfest , with fanny price leading the way . ah , sigh . there will always be cretins who invent falsities to get their names in print . all i can say is that " mansfield park " is an enjoyable piece of cinema , with charming performances and rich , colourful photography . it hasn't dissuaded me from attempting the austen novels a few more times . copyright ( c ) 2000 ian waldron-mantgani <a href= " http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic " >http : //members . aol . com/ukcritic</a> 
