How could something so predictable be so enjoyable? For starters, the film is based on a novel written by Jane Austen, the most consistent and prolific writer of romantic comedies in the late 1990s. Which is pretty sad since she’s been dead for almost 200 years. Think about it – she wrote four books when she was alive and their big screen adaptations this decade have resulted in an Oscar and Writers Guild Award (Sense and Sensibility), a Writers Guild nomination (Emma), a National Society of Film Critics Award (Clueless, which was based on Emma) and an Emmy nomination (Pride and Prejudice). And not only is the film based on Austen’s 1814 novel, but also on her personal letters and journals, which renders the film a bit more autobiographical than the book.

In the film, a ten-year-old girl named Fanny Price (Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Jakob the Liar) is sent to Mansfield Park, her Aunt Bertram’s wealthy estate in Northamptonshire. Fanny thinks the move from her family’s hovel in Portsmouth is temporary, but she quickly learns otherwise. Although she is treated like an unwanted stepchild (especially by her snooty cousins Julia and Maria), Fanny is a gracious guest during her stay at Mansfield. She passes the time writing her younger sister with creatively outlandish stories of her new surroundings and new family. She reads the letters –presumably Austen’s letters - directly into the camera. Fanny also finds comfort in her cousin Edmund (Jonny Lee Miller, Plunkett & Macleane), who is sharp enough to overlook the differences in their social status.

Years later, an older Fanny (Frances O'Connor, Kiss or Kill) has accepted her place in the Bertram caste system. She’s content to be in the presence of her kin and guests, but is relegated to the background of most societal functions. But Mansfield Park is thrown into upheaval when a brother/sister team hit the local scene. Londoner Mary Crawford (Embeth Davidtz, The Gingerbread Man) is a gossipy meddler that recognizes Fanny as a bright young woman, declaring that she has a "tongue sharper than a guillotine." Brother Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola, Face/Off) is instantly smitten with Fanny, who must choose between a superficial marriage that will secure both her social status and the family’s name, and an unlikely romance with the uninterested Edmund, who wants to be a clergyman.

Directed and adapted by Patricia Rozema (When Night is Falling), Park looks great and is lensed by Michael Coulter (Sense and Sensibility). The art and production teams are led by Velvet Goldmine vets Andrew Munro and Christopher Hobbs. Of other note is the performance of Lindsay Duncan (An Ideal Husband), who plays both Fanny’s mother and Lady Bertram. Rozema’s careful direction almost explains away the predictability of the film by having Fanny deliver a nifty monologue (directly into the camera again), saying "It could have turned out differently – but it didn’t." I guess we’ll have to wait for the Mansfield South Park spoof. Or the big screen version of Austen’s posthumously published Northanger Abbey, which is set to star Rachel Leigh Cook.

1:50 – but includes nudity, sexual content and adult situations