SPOILERS INCLUDED BELOW I truly can't understand why the writer/director of this adaptation felt it was necessary to inject a lot of politically loaded topics into a classic novel about a strong-minded woman who is willing to accept the consequences of an unpopular choice.<br /><br />The addition of lesbian overtones, drug use and images of slaves being raped and tortured really didn't add a thing to the story. Such images don't modernize the central story -- in fact they distract from it. Nor do these deviations from the original book expand our understanding of the characters in any significant way.<br /><br />What is the point of making Sir Thomas Bertram into a lecherous creep? Austen's depiction of him as a well-intentioned but misguided man who has been absent from his own household so much that he has no idea what his family is about, is frankly more believable and more universal in its appeal.<br /><br />Likewise I can't see what purpose was served by turning Lady Bertram into an opium addict. It's enough that she's just silly... we've all known someone just as empty-headed as the character Austen created.<br /><br />Some of the casting is brilliant, but this version of the novel is ridiculously overwrought and heavy-handed. If you're going to try "improving" a great writer like Austen, you'd better have some great stuff to offer. This writer/director is no Austen.