Mansfield Park MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +3 Content: -1

Romantic matches and mismatches among the English upper class in the 1800s sums up the plot of MANSFIELD PARK. Young Fanny Price (Hannah Taylor-Gordon) leaves her poor family in Portsmouth to live with an aunt who manages the domestic staff at the elegant country estate of Sir Thomas Bertram (Harold Pinter). The Bertram family includes Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller), who immediately befriends the outspoken but homesick young girl. Although Fanny is treated as an inferior, especially by her aunt (Sheila Gish), she blossoms into an intelligent, witty and quite beautiful young woman (Frances O'Connor). As Sir Thomas seeks suitable husbands for his two grown daughters, Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola) arrives with his lovely sister Mary (Embeth Davidtz), charming the Bertram family. Quirky characters and witty dialogue, plus magnificent scenery and Jane Austen's light-hearted romantic story will delight mature audiences.

The PG-13 rating for an adaptation of a Jane Austen novel is surprising and some may argue it deserves an R rating. Although an adulterous affair is not condoned, the couple engage in a brief, but graphic, sex scene which is obviously a "Hollywood" embellishment. Rear male nudity and female breast nudity in that scene are the film's only nudity, but the women wear cleavage revealing necklines throughout. Sir Thomas is a lecherous middle-aged man who seems a little too fond of Fanny, although she is much too strong-willed to allow any sexual impropriety. He also owns slaves on his West Indies plantation, and sketches of his cruel treatment and sexual use of the young black females confirm his dark side. Mrs. Bertram suffers from an opium addiction that leaves her in a mental fog and oblivious to her husband's sexual misbehavior. Only Edmund and Fanny never waiver in their high moral standards. The two are wonderful role models for the other self-centered, greedy occupants of Mansfield Park. There are no obscenities or profanities, but MANSFIELD PARK is tainted by its graphic sex scene, light treatment of a drug addict, and strong sensual undercurrent that is out of character for Jane Austen.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Miramax Films, 375 Greenwich, NY, NY 10013