That is alongside the 2007 adaptation of Mansfield Park. Northanger Abbey is not my favourite Jane Austen book, but I do very much like it, it has all the characteristics that make her books so great. As an adaptation this Northanger Abbey is dire. On its own terms however, it manages to be even worse. The scenery and costumes are decent enough, but I couldn't enjoy them properly because the camera work was so distractingly bad, very shaky and unfocused.
I love musical scores in period pieces, but this is one of few that I dislike, it is not only dreary but completely out of place within the setting. Northanger Abbey(1987) contains an awful script as well in my opinion, it misses the satire and wit of the book and ends up being unfunny and aimless. The adaptation may be short, maybe too short, but because of the lack of satirical wit it also is ponderous and dull.
Sadly, the story is increasingly meandering and too serious and melodramatic in tone(the anti-thesis of what it should be), the dream sequences are done in such a way you'd think the people involved were on something trippy and there are no likable characters, the marshioness especially is annoying and not needed at all, and her make-up was awful. Isabella is alright I guess but not as subtle as I would have liked. The acting fares little better.
Katherine Schlesinger is too bug-eyed for me and not innocent enough, Peter Firth as the usually charming Henry is too old and too creepy and Robert Hardy overacts wildly, further disadvantaged by how one-dimensional General Tilney is. Cassie Stuart is much better as Isabella but could've done with more subtlety. The best of the cast was Googie Withers, but she deserved much better.
Overall, a dire adaptation and one of the worst Austen adaptations. Even with its flaws, the 2007 adaptation was far superior. 1/10 Bethany Cox
I love musical scores in period pieces, but this is one of few that I dislike, it is not only dreary but completely out of place within the setting. Northanger Abbey(1987) contains an awful script as well in my opinion, it misses the satire and wit of the book and ends up being unfunny and aimless. The adaptation may be short, maybe too short, but because of the lack of satirical wit it also is ponderous and dull.
Sadly, the story is increasingly meandering and too serious and melodramatic in tone(the anti-thesis of what it should be), the dream sequences are done in such a way you'd think the people involved were on something trippy and there are no likable characters, the marshioness especially is annoying and not needed at all, and her make-up was awful. Isabella is alright I guess but not as subtle as I would have liked. The acting fares little better.
Katherine Schlesinger is too bug-eyed for me and not innocent enough, Peter Firth as the usually charming Henry is too old and too creepy and Robert Hardy overacts wildly, further disadvantaged by how one-dimensional General Tilney is. Cassie Stuart is much better as Isabella but could've done with more subtlety. The best of the cast was Googie Withers, but she deserved much better.
Overall, a dire adaptation and one of the worst Austen adaptations. Even with its flaws, the 2007 adaptation was far superior. 1/10 Bethany Cox