Film Review - Emma. (U)

Everyone has their level.

Twenty-five years have passed since the great Jane Austen screen explosion of my lifetime. In 1995 Pride and Prejudice and Colin Firth's immaculate britches were the talk of UK television, while in that same year Emma Thompson received all manner of plaudits for her film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Then twelve months later it was Gwyneth Paltrow who played the novelist's most infuriating and meddlesome creation, the eponymous Emma Woodhouse. Well Emma and Austen are back and in rude health, thanks to a visually rich and dramatically satisfying new adaptation by first-time feature director Autumn de Wilde. Whether it'll usher in a fresh tide of early 19th Century frocks and frills remains to be discovered - but on its own terms it's a lot of fun.

Emma, for those not acquainted with her, is the 'handsome, clever and rich' daughter of the widowed Mr Woodhouse and heiress to the Hartfield estate. Having no need for gainful employment, she amuses herself through the sport of match-making, working specifically on behalf of her naive friend Harriet Smith. Emma's social snobbery determines that the girl abandon notions of marrying a respectable local farmer, readjusting her affections towards Rev. Elton, a preening and affected clergyman. Her lack of judgement extends to affairs of her own heart, so that she risks attaching herself to a shallow village interloper and missing out on the man to whom she's most naturally suited - family friend George Knighley. Silly girl.

Emma. shares none of the narrative re-framing witnessed in fellow period adaptations Little Women and The Personal History of David Copperfield. This is pure linear storytelling (something perhaps suggested by the full-stop in the title), but director De Wilde puts a definitive stamp on proceedings nonetheless. With a successful career in US music video behind her, she brings an outsider's eye to all the period English frippery, making this a brisk, neatly observed and consistently funny retelling. Admittedly the whole weight of Brit heritage cinema is brought to bear with lavish production design and costumes by Oscar-snagging Alexandra Byrne (these characters are swathed in some seriously OTT Regency clobber); but there's a fresh, modern sensibility for all that, along with a noteworthy youthfulness in the casting.

At the heart is Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma. With cult horror The Witch, two M. Night Shyamalan films and Peaky Blinders on her CV, she has the experience combined with a peculiarly wide-eyed exoticism to make this heroine sympathetic. Emma, as protagonists go, is pretty appalling for much of the running time; however there's nuance to spare in Taylor-Joy's performance, allowing for a sense of growing self-awareness beneath a haughty, arrogant surface. There's wisdom too in casting Vanity Fair's Johnny Flynn as a younger version of Mr. Knightley, so that his responses to Emma comes across more as frustrated passion than paternalistic disapproval. (This also makes for the most erotic interactions possible while retaining a U certificate.) And as lovelorn Harriet, Suspiria's Mia Goth is less rural bumpkin, more childlike innocent in an endearing, regularly scene-stealing turn  - one that rivals Taylor-Joy for who can well up most spontaneously on camera.

Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart provide older counterpoints as the loveably hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse and tragi-comic Miss Bates respectively, but there's also casting in depth here. Much of Austen's most potent humour came from her minor players and de Wilde has an eye for them all, drawing out fully hilarious moments from everyone down to the line-bereft Hartfield footmen. Her on-point comedy timing helps with a sense of modernity; this comedy of manners may be set two centuries in the past, but the sharpness of Austen's wit and heightened visual comedy brings it fully into 2020.

Jane Austen was, perhaps, too resigned to the inequalities of her time to present stories with full 21st Century resonance. Her stories tend towards benign social comedy rather than full-on satire. (Fans of her novels, feel free to argue with me here.) This adaptation grasps the novel's key intentions and tells a gloriously amusing, sexy love story, one that's visually arresting with a contemporary cinematic edge. Plus its score, combining classical strains with stirring folk melodies, provides more of a social sweep than you might expect. Emma. mightn't quite achieve Thompson's Sense and Sensibility greatness, but it comes within the wave of a lace handkerchief. JA's most exasperating heroine is back - and in spite of everything, you might just fall for her.

Gut Reaction: Properly ravished by the look of it, properly tickled by the comedy and... not unmoved by the sentimental bits.

Memorable Moment: Austenian dirty dancing.

Ed's Verdict: 8/10. A highly talented new feature director in de Silva, scintillating performances from young and old and a period flick that's both irreverent and respectful. What's not to love?