EMMA.
***
Director: Autumn de Wilde
Screenwriter: Eleanor Catton, based on the eponymous novel by Jane Austen.
Principal cast:
Anya Taylor-Joy
Johnny Flynn
Bill Nighy
Mia Goth
Josh O’Connor
Miranda Hart
Country: UK
Classification: PG
Runtime: 124 mins.
Australian release date: 13 February 2020
It is said that Jane Austen declared, before penning the last of her novels to be published while she was still alive (Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were both published posthumously), that, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." And in writing Emma, she did, so it’s a slightly strange choice for a first-time director to make. Autumn de Wilde is an American photographer and video-maker who usually works in the field of rock ’n’ roll, a far cry from the verdant pastures of Georgian England, the setting of her film of Emma.. The director has made a fair fist of it though and you come away agreeing with Austen that, indeed, her scheming little minx of a protagonist is pretty unlikeable.
When Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy), a 20-something young woman “with very little to stress or vex her,” takes credit for the marriage of her friend and governess (Gemma Whelan) to a local gentleman (Rupert Graves), she gets it into her head that she’s an excellent matchmaker and contrives to do it again. Setting her sights on her new acquaintance Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), she hatches a plot to fix her up with the village vicar, Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor). There are just two problems with this plan: somebody else already has designs on Harriet and Mr. Elton only has eyes for Emma. Refusing to acknowledge the former and too self-absorbed to see the latter, she blithely continues, oblivious to the truth of what is going on around her. Her eccentric, hypochondriac father (Bill Nighy, doing a wonderful job of doing what he does best) can’t see it either, oblivious to everything except the possibility of a draft of air entering his drawing room. Throw into this heady mix a host of other characters looking for love or to climb the Regency social ladder and you have the perfect set-up for plenty of mishaps and misapprehensions to occur, especially on the part of Emma. The only person in the spoiled young woman’s orbit with the courage to call her out is her long-time friend and neighbour, George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), and he’s harbouring a secret himself.
Emma. (the full stop is included in the film’s title) looks sublime. The cast is handsome, the production design splendid and the locations, both interior and exterior, absolutely stunning. It’s worth the price of admission for these attributes alone, however, they also contribute to the film’s problems. Namely, that there’s a lot of surface but very little depth. Certainly, in a comedy of manners like this you wouldn’t expect much beyond the superficial but you must, at the very least, engage with and relate to the chief protagonists and, in this case, real passion is in short supply. Even the climax of the movie, when all is resolved and everyone is loved up and coupled off, it’s hard to go ‘awww,’ which is a very necessary part of a story like this. It's all a bit bloodless. Still, if you like your men sporting turned-up collars and long tailored coats and your women in Empire line dresses and fussy bonnets, you’ll find much to enjoy in Emma.. To this reviewer, the latest incarnation of Austin’s disagreeable heroine is just a bit too modern; I half-expected her to be clutching a mobile phone!
Screenwriter: Eleanor Catton, based on the eponymous novel by Jane Austen.
Principal cast:
Anya Taylor-Joy
Johnny Flynn
Bill Nighy
Mia Goth
Josh O’Connor
Miranda Hart
Country: UK
Classification: PG
Runtime: 124 mins.
Australian release date: 13 February 2020
It is said that Jane Austen declared, before penning the last of her novels to be published while she was still alive (Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were both published posthumously), that, "I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like." And in writing Emma, she did, so it’s a slightly strange choice for a first-time director to make. Autumn de Wilde is an American photographer and video-maker who usually works in the field of rock ’n’ roll, a far cry from the verdant pastures of Georgian England, the setting of her film of Emma.. The director has made a fair fist of it though and you come away agreeing with Austen that, indeed, her scheming little minx of a protagonist is pretty unlikeable.
When Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy), a 20-something young woman “with very little to stress or vex her,” takes credit for the marriage of her friend and governess (Gemma Whelan) to a local gentleman (Rupert Graves), she gets it into her head that she’s an excellent matchmaker and contrives to do it again. Setting her sights on her new acquaintance Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), she hatches a plot to fix her up with the village vicar, Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor). There are just two problems with this plan: somebody else already has designs on Harriet and Mr. Elton only has eyes for Emma. Refusing to acknowledge the former and too self-absorbed to see the latter, she blithely continues, oblivious to the truth of what is going on around her. Her eccentric, hypochondriac father (Bill Nighy, doing a wonderful job of doing what he does best) can’t see it either, oblivious to everything except the possibility of a draft of air entering his drawing room. Throw into this heady mix a host of other characters looking for love or to climb the Regency social ladder and you have the perfect set-up for plenty of mishaps and misapprehensions to occur, especially on the part of Emma. The only person in the spoiled young woman’s orbit with the courage to call her out is her long-time friend and neighbour, George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), and he’s harbouring a secret himself.
Emma. (the full stop is included in the film’s title) looks sublime. The cast is handsome, the production design splendid and the locations, both interior and exterior, absolutely stunning. It’s worth the price of admission for these attributes alone, however, they also contribute to the film’s problems. Namely, that there’s a lot of surface but very little depth. Certainly, in a comedy of manners like this you wouldn’t expect much beyond the superficial but you must, at the very least, engage with and relate to the chief protagonists and, in this case, real passion is in short supply. Even the climax of the movie, when all is resolved and everyone is loved up and coupled off, it’s hard to go ‘awww,’ which is a very necessary part of a story like this. It's all a bit bloodless. Still, if you like your men sporting turned-up collars and long tailored coats and your women in Empire line dresses and fussy bonnets, you’ll find much to enjoy in Emma.. To this reviewer, the latest incarnation of Austin’s disagreeable heroine is just a bit too modern; I half-expected her to be clutching a mobile phone!