Sadly Over-hyped

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

For example poor Catherine, when she is kicked out of Northanger Abbey for not being wealthy enough, is depicted as being squeezed between a motley crew of passengers on the common coach. In the novel she is able to travel post.It is wonderful to see Jane Austen's characters come to life in this movie: Mrs. Allen who talks of nothing but wardrobe. Mr. John Thorpe, coarse, but first and foremost a liar. Isabella Thorpe, duplicitous and manic. Lacking merit, she portrays herself as having it. Mr. Tilney, mildly humorous. Catherine, an affectionate nature, a bit silly, loyal. General Tilney, a materialistic status seeker, also a hypocrite, who has learned superficially what is expected of a charming man, and in his efforts to appear so never expresses any true emotion. Who is a roiling, boiling stew of anger and irritation underneath the surface. He always seems to be expressing the opposite of what he feels. Since he sees his true feelings as being socially unacceptable, the characters are always relieved when he goes away.By showing Isabella Thorpe in bed with Captain Tilney, leaving her ruined, the movie goes beyond what Jane Austen wrote.This movie shows John Thorpe telling General Tilney of Catherine Morland's wealthy expectations. This is the act of someone who when he feels positively about something or someone, will make up a series of positive and complimentary lies or when disappointed as he was by Catherine's rejection of his attentions, will then make up a series of negative, uncomplimentary lies. He doesn't really lie like Isabella and General Tilney do, because their true feelings are not socially acceptable. He lies because he doesn't know the difference between the truth and his own fantasies or because the truth stands in the way of him getting what he wants.This movie has a vibrancy that makes it a little exciting, even though Jane Austen's writings are not really exciting.

I did not watch this completely. I could not bear it. Everything was wrong.At first I thought: Interesting take on Henry Tilney, make him a little more ...glib, I think, fits.But then I found it false and implausible - bad acting did not help.Mrs Allen is too sweet. Missed the chance for authentic portrayal - she is a superficial, self-centered, nice enough simpleton, such a great foundation for caricature (Jane Austen was a genius at that!) Mr Allen too wordy in general.Isabella is FAR TOO NICE. She is supposed to be chatty, self-centered in a bad way, befriending Catherine with her own motives in mind.John Thorpe - completely wrong - oh my...another chance of caricature (and fun!!!) lost.Seems to be they just took the script from the 1986 version and juiced it up a bit (not that I watched that one through...life is short, and at least I want to decide what I waste it on - not this!!!) - a Roman bath scene??? Hello??? lol Catherine - oh Catherine. I love Catherine,naive and simple as she might be. Here she flirts, pouts and suffers from hormonal overflow - yucky! That they used a voice over with verbatim parts from the novel makes this even more ---- HORRID!!!:-) As has been stated here: If you don't do Jane Austen to the book, leave it! (Or take better script writers, actors and directors - I'm not adverse to interesting adaptations - like Clueless for Emma - but this is unnecessary drab)

"Northanger Abbey" is one of my favorite Austen novels, because it so wittily satirizes the melodramatic phase that many teen-aged girls go through, even today. So I was particularly looking forward to this dramatization. It wasn't long before I realized that the movie has warped Austen's work into exactly the kind of story she was satirizing.It isn't an issue of adapting the work for the screen, but of "updating" by deliberately increasing the melodramatic and sexual aspects of the work, which resulted in a treatment that is exactly the opposite of what Austen wrote. For instance, when Catherine sees Henry at the ball in Bath with a woman, in the novel it specifically states that she is denied the pleasure of blanching and looking stricken because she knows that the woman cannot be anyone other than his sister. In the movie, she blanches and looks stricken and only recovers when the woman is introduced as his sister. Catherine meets Eleanor's forbidden lover early in the novel at Bath, when they are walking with Henry. He begs Catherine not to reveal the meeting to his father. Not only did this not take place in the novel -- the young man is not even mentioned until the last page of the novel! -- Austen would never have countenanced such deception of a parent by any of her heroes or heroines. It is, however, a staple of the Gothic romance novel.Northanger Abbey is presented as exactly what it is not; unfortunately for the filmmaker, it was merely an abbey, not a sinister Gothic castle, but he did not let that little detail get in his way. General Tilney is explicitly painted as a cold and greedy tyrant who only married his wife for her money and made her life a living hell, something which cannot be supported by the novel. Catherine is thrown out of the Abbey in the middle of the night, rather than the next morning; anything for melodrama. And then there is Isabella's blatant seduction by Frederick. So much more melodramatic and "accessible" to a modern audience than a mere flirtation. Such travesties lead one to contemplate urging changes to the copyright laws, and to wonder why it is that filmmakers think that they can improve upon what the generations have already tested and pronounced perfect.

I loved this adaption of Northanger Abby. I keep pretty close to the book though it wasn't exactly the same but none of the movies are. I loved JJ Feild as Henry Tilney he was perfect for the role and Felicity Jones did an excellent job as Catherine. And loved Catherine's fantasy scenes they fit really well into the story. The only thing is that i felt it was rather rushed i mean add an another 30 min to an hour and it would of been even better. I loved the ending scene out of all the rest. It was more romantic then in the book(heres the scene) HenryTilney: Let me instead tell you what I said to him. I told him that I felt myself bound to you, by honor, by affection, and by a love so strong that nothing he could do could deter me from ... CatherineMorland: From what? Henry Tilney: Before I go on I should tell you there's a pretty good chance he'll disinherit me. I fear I may never be a rich man Catherine. Catherine Morland: Please, go on with what you were going to say! Henry Tilney: Will you marry me Catherine? Catherine Morland: Yes! Yes I will! Yes! (they kiss, and she backs him into a wall in her passion). Over all VERY GOOD Adaption.