Book Review: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Five Stars)

Book Review: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

(Five Stars)

“There certainly are not so many men of large fortune in the world as there are pretty women to deserve them.”

Austen at her best. Gone is the self-assured heroine of earlier novels who sweeps all before her; enter the humble waif who must learn the ways of the world and society on the fly. Fanny’s internal dialogue sets Mansfield Park apart from Austen’s earlier works. It’s still Austen, but it grips the soul of the reader.

“Her consciousness of misery was therefore increased by the idea of its being a wicked thing for her not to be happy. Fanny’s relief, and her consciousness of it, were quite equal to her cousins’; but a more tender nature suggested that her feelings were ungrateful, and she really grieved because she could not grieve. Her cousins, on seeing her red eyes, set her down as a hypocrite.”

The reader gains a more mature critique on the corner of society which

Movie Review: Pixar’s Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich (Four Stars)

theatrical release poster

Movie Review: Pixar’s Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich

Four Stars

A visually and emotionally pleasing original story about a living boy’s visit to his family in the land of the dead. Sympathetic portrayal of Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos. Warm relationships. Music and family are big themes.

Before taking children to see it, parents may wish to have an age-appropriate discussion about the afterlife. A lot of it is played for laughs, but issues presented may be unsettling to young children.

 

Movie Review: Frozen (3 Stars)

Frozen

(3 out of 5 stars)

BEWARE: Spoilers

(Seen twice: once in theaters, once on Blu-Ray)

Whoever writes liner notes for Disney must be illiterate. “Walt Disney Studios presents a chilly twist on one of the most humorous and heartwarming stories ever told.” Hans Christian Andersen’s “Snow Queen”? I don’t think so. The original Snow Queen was more like the White Witch in C. S. Lewis‘ Narnia than the older sister of this adaptation. In fact, this entire story is pretty much cut from whole cloth. (Not that that’s a bad thing, and not that Disney hasn’t turned fairy tales inside out before–often to good effect.)

Making the protagonists sisters was genius.