This is a movie that amused me the first time around, delighted me on further viewings, and continues to grow in my esteem. The script's light tone hides depths that surprise. Stillman strikes just the right note in a story that touches on pains and fears that are genuinely daunting (divorce of parents, love unrequited, etc) as well as the comic value of his characters' earnestness and foibles, keeping just the right distance so that comedy keeps just ahead; all leading to the modest but charming triumph of the shy and virtuous protagonists. <br /><br />The link to Mansfield Park (the book, not the movie) has been noted by some observers, with a story centered on the mischief some young people get up to while their parents are absent, and the trials this brings for the young protagonists. But this isn't Austen's story, not really. Stillman has done something like what Austen might have wanted to do, had she been a filmmaker in our time. But with his own story, his own times and mores, his own world, his own delightful touch. Considering the budget Stillman had to work with, this is a masterpiece.