Northanger Abbey (2007)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Northanger Abbey (2007 TV Movie) is a BBC film directed by Jon Jones. The movie is based on Jane Austen's novel, which was written when she was young, and never published in her lifetime. The brilliant Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay.Because Northanger Abbey was written by Jane Austen, we can reasonably assume that it will be about men seeking wives, and women seeking husbands. In the early 19th Century, men had options, but women didn't. The situation was made worse by the fact the even rich men wanted to marry women of wealth. That meant that poor women might have to marry men they didn't love, or not get married at all. It's hard to say whether Jane Austen realized the injustice of the social system, or whether she just took it for granted. After all, that was the reality of everything she saw around her.There's a theme in the novel that reminded me of Don Quixote, written 200 years earlier. Don Quixote reads too many chivalric romances, and eventually believes that he's a character in one of those romances. Similarly, Catherine Morland (Felicity Jones), reads so many Gothic novels that she begins to believe that she's living in one. That's especially true when she is invited to Northanger Abbey, a huge, dark structure presided over by the harsh General Tilney (Liam Cunningham). Cunningham captures what I think was Jane Austen's concept of the man. General Tilney does something that goes far beyond impoliteness. We don't doubt for a minute that he would do it.Catherine is in love with her soulmate Henry Tilney, played by JJ Feild. (He's the Genera's son.) The course of true love never did run smooth, and Northanger Abbey is no exception. It's a Jane Austen novel, so you know the outcome. It's the way Austen--and director Jones--bring us from start to end that makes the movie worth seeing.I truly enjoyed this film, even though Northanger Abbey is one of Austen's less admired works. Jane Austen was a genius, and even her lesser novels are worth reading and watching in a movie.Felicity Jones is beautiful, JJ Feild is handsome, and it's a BBC production. If you love Jane Austen, you'll love this film. If you don't care much for Austen, I'd still recommend this movie.Because this film was made for TV, it works well on the small screen.

I've watched the film twice now and I have to say, I think this is a very lightweight version of Austen, There is nothing terribly bad about it, but nothing that great either. The one exception I would make is Carey Mulligan's Isabella Thorpe. She is very good as the manipulative and venal Isabella. But she also has a tinge of the pathetic about her. She seems to be a person who is determined to make the wrong decisions. As always in Davies adaptations, it is the 'villains' who are more interesting, but not even Andrew Davies and Mulligan can make John and Isabella Thorpe more than simply manipulative and venal. Felicity Jones is suitably innocent as Catherine, Fields is kind and understanding as Henry. The great Liam Cunningham is criminally wasted as Gen Tilney though. Everyone else is very nice and the costumes are lovely. Lismore Castle makes for a suitably large and intimidating Abbey and Dublin makes for a great 19th Century Bath. In conclusion it's all very nice and pretty, (a kiss of death IMO) . The biggest gripe apart from the lack of any real tension and conflict in the plot would be Davies obligatory insertion of sexual misbehavior that is just so unlike Austen's novel. The Gothic elements introduced by Catherine's vivid dreams seem to have been heavily inspired by the 1987 version. I could be wrong about that, perhaps every adaptation has these boring dream sequences.All in all, not my favourite Austen. You should never be bored by Austen.

Having just read the book I thought it would be a good idea to see if there had been made any TV adaptations of the book. Finding that there had indeed I decided to watch it. And too be honest it turned out to be quite a disappointment. I think my disappointment was mostly due to the fact that I had had just read the book and was actually able to remember the story and therefore being able to see that this adaptation didn't have much to do with it. The general is being described as a coldblooded vampire and the story is being overdramatized, not at all in the spirit of Jane Austen. The acting is however descent and some of the roles have been well casted.I found the book a lot more entertaining and it being so short i found it very strange that they should choose to alter so much.

I thought this was a wonderful adaptation of Jane Austen's classic. Being my favourite novel i was very concerned to learn that ITV had decided to remake this story, my fears were however very unfounded. There was not a decent adaptation of this book in existence, there is now. The script was very good, retaining the sharp humour shown in the book, though this is not surprising as the script writer was Andrew Davies. I felt the cast were well chosen and acted well, especially JJ Feild as Mr Tilney. Apart from the slightly irritating dream sequences which every screen adaptation of this story feels obliged to add, it made very satisfying viewing and saw me running to the DVD shop when it was released.