I am a Janeite, a die hard died in the wool lover of all things Jane Austen. Like all Janeites, I have found that the film adaptations do not do the book justice and indeed the book is better than the film. I am willing to put up with some of the little deleted plot line to view the a film displaying my beloved book characters. Northanger Abby 1987 was no different. The actors playing the characters did a fairly good job. The screenplay contained most of the plot lines with a few omissions and a few additions. I just don't get the reason for additions of plot, the adding of extra characters or the complete leaving out of others. This adaptation passed my test for that, only one new character added not in the book. The part I hated was the music. It was a mixture of saxophone, synthesized keyboards and a woman howling out some oohing. These are not period accurate! I couldn't take it! It made the film seem like a senior high film project. Was it a low budget film? The dream scenes were not necessary. This was a playful story poking fun at novels. There was nothing playful about it.
Review of Northanger Abbey
