Jane's addiction

>> A stroll through Mansfield Park

by JOANNE LATIMER

That's the last of them. With the release of Mansfield Park, every novel by Jane Austen has been made into a feature film. Pity. If only there were more. They make wonderfully subtle films, and Patricia Rozema has delivered a stunning addition to the current "Jane Collection for Austen Addicts."

"I have no talent for certainty," says Fanny Price (Frances O'Connor), the film's heroine. She's being too humble. Fanny Price is the moral groundskeeper at Mansfield Park, the family estate of Sir Thomas Bertram (Harold Pinter). Fanny is the poor relative sent to live with her wealthy cousins, as their social inferior. She matures into a brainy beauty, however, who out-classes them at every turn.

The household is up-ended when charming socialites from London come to visit. Fanny is alarmed to discover that her cousin Edmond (Jonny Lee Miller) is attracted to a shallow gold digger, and Fanny herself becomes the object of a dandy's attention. The Bertram's family wealth is complicated by slave revolts in Antigua, and the oldest son, Tom (James Purefoy), is letting his self-loathing get the upper hand.

With this slave question, Austen's world of strategic garden parties is suddenly expanded. Rozema boosted the abolitionist issue a bit and the film benefits from it. Fanny, who is a hybrid of Austen and the novel's heroine, is given occasion to rethink her social contract at Mansfield Park and decides to return to her poor family in Portsmouth. Hearts are broken.

Fanny is a feminist heroine who resists the temptation to "marry well." This alone makes her a very sympathetic character. She isn't the carefree, meddling Emma. The threat of poverty, something that really frightened Austen, makes this novel ring true. Rozema's creative additions to the text expand the film's romantic possibilities while making it more resonant with politics of the day.

True to its genre, everyone is filmed in the flattering glow of candlelight and the women's cleavage is, well, up 'n' out. The idle rich have never looked, danced nor sounded better while being undone. Consequently, Austen's loyalties may be a bit divided, but who else can coin a motto like this: "Run mad whenever you choose but never faint"?

Mansfield Park is now playing. See listings for showtimes.