Called “the best thing to happen to Austen in a long time” by Xtra Magazine, writer-director Patricia Rozema boldly enters the “Austen-mania” of the ’90s (five other Jane Austen adaptations were filmed for the big screen in the decade, and that’s not counting Clueless!) with this loose interpretation of the British author’s complex 1814 novel. A rags-to-riches tale of Fanny Price (Frances O’Connor), sent by her struggling parents to her wealthy uncle, Mansfield Park rejects the lure of rendering Austen in a purely elegant mode, facing the realities of the period’s history of slavery unflinchingly. Scintillating and infused with youthful curiosity and bisexual electricity, Rozema’s adaptation victoriously remains true to the filmmaker’s ardently independent vision.