Mansfield Park is a 1999 British romantic comedy-drama film based on Jane Austen's 1814 novel of the same name, written and directed by Patricia Rozema.

Angry, Sir Thomas gives Fanny an ultimatum: accept Henry's proposal of marriage or be sent back to her poor family and experience the difference in comfort.

Later Edmund arrives to take Fanny back to Mansfield Park to help care for Tom, who has fallen seriously ill and is near death.

Edmund is appalled and tells Mary that cheerfully condemning Tom to death whilst she plans to spend his money sends a chill to his heart.

Fanny's sister Susie joins them at the Bertram household while Maria and Aunt Norris take up residence in a small cottage removed from Mansfield Park.

David Monaghan argues that viewers should approach Rozema's Mansfield Park as 'an independent work of art rather than an adaptation of Austen's novel'.

'[5] Paula Byrne commends Rozema for an audacious film "that eschews the heritage-style whimsy of the conventional period drama".

She argues that in its deployment of feminist, gender and post-colonial themes, it recognises the contribution of more recent academic literary criticism of Austen's works, and "provides a fascinating shadow story to this most complex of novels".

The result is a film that retains the core of character evolution and events of Austen's novel, but in other ways, stresses its themes and ideas differently.

[9] The essence of the triangular trade was that after the ships had transported the enslaved captives from Africa to the Caribbean, they would return to Europe loaded only with sugar and tobacco.

[5] Fanny alone resists the power of the landed gentry, defying both the awesome patriarch, Sir Thomas Bertram, and the manipulative seducer, Henry Crawford.

The first instance, Fanny's discovery of Maria and Henry Crawford in clandestine sexual activity during a rehearsal of Lover's Vows, is not included in the book, where the flirtation is far more subtle.

[7] Secondly, Mary Crawford's frequent sensual touches and lingering gazes on Fanny convey a homoerotic tension with little textual support.

[7] Rozema claimed the "lesbian frisson" was "definitely in the book," arising from Miss Crawford's worldly character, though admitted she chose Mansfield Park because she "knew she could indulge herself in a couple of scenes.

Fanny's banishment to Portsmouth is characterised as a punishment by a vengeful Sir Thomas rather than as a much more subtle and manipulative ploy expressed partly as a respite from stress following Henry Crawford's unwelcome attentions.

In the novel, Fanny remains at Portsmouth for several months, whereas in the film she returns to Mansfield Park much earlier in order to nurse Tom Bertram back to health.

[13] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it a four-star review, saying, "This is an uncommonly intelligent film, smart and amusing too, and anyone who thinks it is not faithful to Austen doesn't know the author but only her plots.

"[14] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly also gave the film a positive review, dubbing it as "a handsome and forceful piece of work" and praising O'Connor's ability to display the "quiet battle of emotions in Fanny.

"[15] Andrew Johnston of Time Out New York wrote: "Grafting incidents gleaned from Jane Austen's journals and letters onto the story of the author's third novel, Rozema captures the writer's combination of prickly wit and hopeless romanticism as few filmmakers have.

... You may be able to see Mansfield Park's ending coming from a mile away, but it's so beautifully constructed and dramatically satisfying when it arrives that you probably won't mind at all.