Jane Austen strikes again, this time in a movie based on the novel Mansfield Park, mingled with letters and journals of the author. I've not read the novel, but the scuttlebutt is that the novel is not considered Austen's most striking, and while this new cinematic rendition varies from the novel's plot, it certainly expresses the author's intent. Patricia Rozema makes the film quite opinionated, striking out savagely against patriarchy, imperialism, and slavery.

Set in 1806, Mansfield Park, tells the story of a young girl named Fanny Price who moves from her squalid dwelling in Portsmouth to live with her aunts and cousins, a hundred miles away in the enormous Mansfield Park. Unsettled in her new surroundings and somewhat afraid of her new family, Fanny delves into education, and particularly her writing as a means of escape. Frances O'Connor as Fanny is the perfect choice for heroine and feminist mouthpiece. She is full of unspoken wit, and occasion outspoken wisdom. I find hers to be an appropriate image to hold in my mind as Jane Austen herself.

At various points in the film, Fanny directly addresses the camera, a technique that is at first off-putting, but ultimately an effective stylistic device to create the amalgam of novel and historical fact. The device is also quite playful, as is most of the movie.

Fanny at one point calls her life a "quick succession of busy nothings," which rather well describes the film. After all, Austen novels can spend 20 pages describing the taking of one's tea. But the language is so marvelous. Everyone speaks in such wonderful convoluted sentences, and the barbs are so civilly placed!

In fact, I found myself delightfully entertained by "Mansfield Park." As well as admiring Frances O'Connor as Fanny, I thoroughly enjoyed playwright Harold Pinter, as Fanny's uncle Sir Thomas Bertram. And Embeth Davidtz's cold-hearted Mary Crawford was equally appealing. In short, there's much to admire in "Mansfield Park." I enjoyed it all.