Rating: PG
Runtime: 2 hours, 4 minutes
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Quick Impressions:
I’m fairly confident that nobody has been more excited to see this new version of Emma than my mother. (I mean…Maybe Miranda Hart’s mother…)
My mom is a huge fan of Miranda Hart and her eponymous sitcom. We all like Miranda around here, even my daughter who used to make her baby brother squeal with laughter by joyously blurting out Patricia Hodge’s catchphrase, “Such fun!” My mom is partial to the episode in which Miranda and her mother (played by Hodge) spend an increasingly awkward hour with a psychiatrist. She finds it hilarious and relatable, which probably says as much about me as it does about her.
In this new version of Emma, Hart plays Miss Bates, excellent casting. She’s easy to imagine in the role and does, in fact, make the most of it. As far as I’m concerned, that awful moment with Miss Bates is the highlight of any production of Emma. (Runner up, for me, is the disastrous carriage ride with Mr. Elton.) As a protagonist, Emma is at her best when her confidence is shaken.
I’m no Jane Austen expert, though I have read all of her published novels and some of her other work. Personally, I prefer Pride and Prejudice to Emma (even though I know so many people who love Emma best). My favorite screen adaptation of Emma (of the twenty billion I’ve seen) is (easily) Clueless. (Obviously, it’s quite heavily adapted, but the end product is faithful to the spirit of the novel, a witty look at 90s culture, and a joy to watch.)
I also kind of like the one with Gwyneth Paltrow, which is widely maligned these days. I mean, it’s not perfect, but it’s not every day you get a supporting cast like that. (Toni Collette as Harriet! Ewan McGregor as Frank Churchill! Alan Cumming as Mr. Elton!)
I did reread the novel when I was pregnant with my son, but I don’t read it often. (Now that I’m not teaching or doing academic research, I don’t read any one book too often.) My favorite memory of the novel is the time in college when two of my best friends returned from the class where they were studying it to begin loudly arguing in our kitchen about which of them was more like Emma. To be clear, they both wanted the honor of being Emma-like, even though in their self-analysis they were stressing the character’s flaws. I’m all for the spirited discussion of literature, but their theatrics woke me from a much needed nap. Growing more irritated with every step, I emerged from my bedroom to inform them, “You’re both right. Now please shut up.”
Emma is deeply flawed, at times off-puttingly so. And in this version, her flaws are particularly evident for most of the film. But still, the adaptation works. It’s one of the better big screen Emmas, memorable chiefly because it’s so stylized. The energy of its carefully constructed visuals and arresting soundscape advances the film’s emotional journey just as much as any of the performances, which are also quite good.
The Good:
Aside from Miranda Hart’s involvement, the only thing I knew about this Emma before seeing the film is that director Autumn de Wilde has a background directing music videos. This certainly shows.
This film is so stylized. Its art direction, choreographed movement, use of music, visual imagery, even shot composition lend such dynamic intensity to every scene. I think of Onna White’s Oscar-winning choreography in the movie Oliver! (my favorite film as a young child. There’s not even an Oscar for choreography, but they gave one to White anyway!) For Dickens, atmosphere is almost just as much a character as any human. Oliver! dramatizes this as the city literally comes to life in certain musical numbers.
In the same way, Austen breathes drama and humanity into apparently mundane events, her wit crackling just beneath what can be easily mistaken for dull prose if you miss the humor. I love the way that de Wilde’s film manages to breathe so much invigorating, vibrant energy into the story without resorting to blatant anachronism or fantasy. (The color choices are exceedingly bold, and I’m not expert enough in the Regency period to know if that may be slight anachronism. I don’t think so because the people wearing the bold colors all have conspicuous wealth, and the colors in famous paintings of the era are certainly bold. You don’t see soldiers in the War of 1812 slouching around in taupe.)
The bursts of music and choreographed movement are highly noticeable, but I personally find the shot composition even more effective. Nothing looks boring or lifeless in this film. Even someone standing (relatively) motionless is given surroundings that bring energy to the shot. The landscape itself comes to life as it is presented to us from novel angles or useful elevations. Much praise must go to Christopher Blauvelt for his captivating cinematography. We’re in a small town in the English countryside in the 1800s, but it looks as colorful and animated as any Disney classic (that is literally animated and composed of brightly colored cels).
This is such an energetic Emma. I also enjoyed its use of contemporary music and the score by David Schweitzer and Isobel Waller-Bridge (sister of Phoebe, apparently).
Possibly the best novel aspect of this retelling is its emphasis on the role of the servants. From the very first scene, we see how instrumental they are in maintaining (enabling, really) this perfectly choreographed life that young ladies of privilege like Emma live. (Angus Imrie is one of them. I loved him in The Kid Who Would Be King.)
The whole cast is extremely good. The acting style encouraged here at times almost veers into caricature, but it largely works. This is especially the case with the smarmy, sweetly smirking Mr. Elton, delightfully played by Josh O’Connor, and the tragicomically anxious Mr. Woodhouse. Bill Nighy manages to bring minimalistic grandeur to the notorious hypochondriac, making him sympathetic rather than silly even in his most ridiculous moments. I also enjoyed Tanya Reynolds’s take on Mrs. Elton. She’s a bit like a high-strung poodle dressed up for tea with the Queen. Sometimes this character is so unpleasant, but there’s something oddly lovable buried in Reynolds’s awkward, annoying, (even rude) Mrs. Elton.
Some characters seemed slightly less like caricatures. Johnny Flynn brings a rough, rugged glamour to Mr. Knightley, a character who sometimes comes across as dull even dour in screen adaptations of the story. For a while, I thought Flynn was perhaps too young to play Mr. Knightley, but then I reflected that I have gotten older since I first read the novel. He’s probably just about the right age.
Probably my favorite in this cast is Mia Goth who seems uncannily perfect in the role of Harriet. And (I swear this isn’t just my mother’s prejudice speaking) Miranda Hart makes an absolutely marvelous Miss Bates. In a film full of near caricature, Hart takes the often two-dimensional Miss Bates and turns her into one of the most real, heart-breaking, lovely people in the story. She brings real pathos to the role, also real humanity. Most of us have not had the circumstances to be Emma, but who can’t imagine being Miss Bates? She’s quite easy to identify with. Played by Hart, the character feels extremely relatable. Hart also shows us the graciousness and kindness of Miss Bates. Emma may initially think her silly, ridiculous, and dull witted, but she is not.
Best Scene:
My favorite scene in any Emma is always the picnic with Miss Bates. It’s the best here, too.
Best Scene Visually:
I absolutely love the moment after the ball when Knightley rushes up to the carriage and for a split second encounters Emma before she drives away. This sequence feels like a music video, but for some reason, it works extremely well within this Jane Austen adaptation.
Best Action Sequence:
I’m very partial to the part with the flour cake (bullet pudding?). This scene felt so hauntingly familiar that afterwards I had to look to see if it is in the novel. I didn’t remember when it happened, but I also thought I did remember the scene. It isn’t in
Emma, the novel, but I’m positive I’ve read about a very similar ritual in a different book. Online, I’ve read that it’s a Regency game, often played with a bullet, not a coin. But I’m positive I’ve read a version using a coin (and possibly sugar instead of flour) in another novel. I keep thinking it might be something by Dickens, though that would not be Regency. I still think I’ve read about it in another 19th century British novel.
I also love the way the scene with the quick departure in the snow is played for comedy. (And yet it makes us love poor Mr. Woodhouse. I mean, his behavior is funny, but if you listen to what is driving his worry, it’s a little heart-breaking.)
The Negatives:
I did not immediately warm to Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma. As my college friends and everyone else knows, the character is deeply flawed. And in this highly stylized production, the performances often lean in to light caricature. This works well for smirking Mr. Elton and endearing hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse, but playing Emma herself in this style makes her arrogance so embarrassingly visible. Her condescension to Miss Bates, in particular, is so glaringly obvious that I’m surprised everyone in town doesn’t find her rude and insufferable. All of her silences are so obnoxiously pointed. I find it difficult to believe that a young woman who prides herself on good manners and civic duty would not understand how to mask her irritation slightly more effectively. I think her true irritation should reveal itself in confidences to Harriet, but her outward manner should be a bit less openly smug. Those who know her well, like Mr. Knightley, should be able to read her better than neighbors she casually encounters out in public. Emma is an extremely subtle novel, but all of the performances here are anything but. In Emma’s case, this type of blatancy doesn’t quite work. At least, it didn’t quite work for me.
This film also minimizes (practically to the point of erasure), the Frank Churchill/Jane Fairfax storyline. We also don’t really get to see Frank and Emma’s growing emotional intimacy (as she thinks). We hear Mr. Knightley criticize him again and again, but we never actually see much of Frank’s worst behavior, and we don’t get an idea of how he becomes a bad influence on Emma. The moment at the picnic with Miss Bates works incredibly well (and largely because of Miranda Hart), but seems (to a degree) out of context. So much of the subtext of so many tense, charged conversations simply disappears from this movie.
I did manage eventually to warm up to Emma. (And I like Anya Taylor-Joy as an actress. I loved her in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.) By the final act of the movie, it’s easy to root for her. For one thing, her own bad behavior is so egregious that given her youth and her subsequent distress, it’s almost impossible not to feel for her. I almost appreciated the way that the film makes everything that happens after that so gentle. We see the story’s happy ending so early and never truly believe anything will jeopardize that. I’m not sure the last act of the movie should be so free of tension, but it does make for a comfortable watch.
I do wish the movie managed to include some of Emma‘s riddles and charades, but that’s only because I enjoyed them in the book. And since my parents asked about how Emma and Mr. Knightley were related on the car ride home, I do think perhaps the film should have revealed that more clearly. If you’ve read the book, you know that her older sister married his younger brother. But the movie hardly ever refers to Isabella’s husband as Mr. John Knightley, and even then, I’m not sure it fully explains the relationship. Let’s face it, though, most people who go to see this film are probably quite familiar with Emma already.
I also think the movie contained shockingly little dancing. Yes, dancing is not the main thrust of Emma, but usually any Jane Austen screen adaptation contains a good half hour of long, pointed conversations, awkwardly truncated by dance moves.
If you’re thinking of taking your children, perhaps you would like to know that in our first look at Mr. Knightley, we get more than a glimpse of his naked rear end. My daughter seems to have survived this ordeal and is currently in reasonably good health. (She didn’t even gasp or giggle unlike several adult women sitting near us.) This is not really a problem, in my opinion, but parents who are surprised by this scene early on may worry about what other nude surprises are coming later. Don’t worry. That’s it.
Overall:
Autumn de Wilde’s take on Emma is a delightfully invigorated, pleasant, and (mostly) satisfying version of Jane Austen’s classic. Miranda Hart (Miss Bates), Bill Nighy (Mr. Woodhouse), Josh O’Connor (Mr. Elton), Tanya Reynolds (Mrs. Elton), and (especially) Mia Goth (Harriet Smith) are standouts, and I even warmed to Anya Taylor-Joy’s Emma after a while. If you like Emma, you’ll want to see this one. And if you’re new to Emma, why not watch and see if you’re interested?
