Emma (DVD)

Emma (the 1996 film of Jane Austen’s novel of the same name) is a wonderfully witty adaptation of this story of 19th century matchmaking, bringing out the humour of the original novel in a similar way to Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility. It features fantastic supporting performances from some of Britain’s finest actors and an excellent leading performance from Gwyneth Paltrow (who I must admit I don’t generally enjoy) demonstrating the brilliant ...
...the ages!

Emma Woodhouse (Paltrow) is a wealthy young woman who lives in Highbury (somewhat more villagey than it is these days!) with her father. The film begins with the marriage of Emma’s governess to a wealthy neighbour, Mr Weston, a match for which Emma happily takes most of the credit. Bored at the loss of her governess Emma decides to take on a new “project” in the shape of Harriet Smith (Toni Collette with a fantastic naïve ... more

Emma (the 1996 film of Jane Austen’s novel of the same name) is a wonderfully witty adaptation of this story of 19th century matchmaking, bringing out the humour of the original novel in a similar way to Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility. It features fantastic supporting performances from some of Britain’s finest actors and an excellent leading performance from Gwyneth Paltrow (who I must admit I don’t generally enjoy) demonstrating the brilliant English accent that she went on to use in Sliding Doors and to Oscar-winning effect in Shakespeare in Love. This adaptation retains the period feel in terms of look and language, but makes us realise that the games played between men and women in relationships change very little over the ages!

Emma Woodhouse (Paltrow) is a wealthy young woman who lives in Highbury (somewhat more villagey than it is these days!) with her father. The film begins with the marriage of Emma’s governess to a wealthy neighbour, Mr Weston, a match for which Emma happily takes most of the credit. Bored at the loss of her governess Emma decides to take on a new “project” in the shape of Harriet Smith (Toni Collette with a fantastic naïve and bumbling portrayal), a young woman who has been brought up at the local school and is of (shock, horror!) unknown parentage! Emma takes it upon herself to educate Harriet, introduce her to the elite of Highbury society and most importantly raise her ideas about whom she should marry. Harriet has recently stayed with some friends in the country where she formed an attachment to the girls brother, a warm and kind young farmer Robert Martin. There is a fantastic scene demonstrative of the entire relationship between Harriet and Emma, where Harriet receives a letter from Mr Martin proposing marriage and much as Harriet wants to say yes she is more desperate for Emma’s approval. Harriet asks outright what should be her reply and while Emma cleverly doesn’t explicitly tell her to refuse, in fact saying she wouldn’t dream of advising, she does all this in such a way Harriet “reaches” the conclusion that she should refuse. You can see that Emma knows she shouldn’t interfere, but her sincere feeling that through her superior knowledge of the world she is doing what is best for Harriet, outweighs any restraint.

Pushing all thoughts of Mr Martin out of Harriet’s head, Emma’s next disastrous move is to try and engineer a romance between Harriet and Mr Elton the parish vicar. Mr Elton is a fantastic comic character, a simpering idiot (although a slightly less snivelling vicar than the awful Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice!) and is played to brilliant effect by Alan Cumming. It is patently clear to all but Emma (and Harriet through Emma’s brainwashing) that the only reason Mr Elton spends his time with the two ladies is that he is madly in love with Emma. When a Harriet-free moment arises and Mr Elton pounces on Emma, she is absolutely stunned but quickly puts him in his place. Mr Elton leaves Highbury to visit Bath and find his own wife, leaving Emma to break the news to Harriet that the man she has encouraged her to consider “in the bag” was not at all interested.

While Emma is held up as an angel by her father, Harriet and the others in the village, her brother-in-law Mr Knightley (the delectable Jeremy Northam) is the only one who is keen to point out her flaws to her. He reprimands her for interfering and matchmaking and there are some lovely scenes between them (the archery scene being particularly funny) where they are bickering with some fantastically witty banter flying back and forth.

As Harriet is recovering from her broken heart, the focus of the matchmaking turns to Emma herself with the arrival of Frank Churchill, the son of the Mr Weston (husband of Emma’s governess). Though unsaid the Westons, Highbury society in general and even Emma herself seem to think Emma and Frank (Ewan Magregor plus comedy hair) are destined for each other. Frank and Emma do get on like a house on fire, both always the centre of attention and keen to gossip about those around them. However, the relationship is really no more than friends – Frank turns out to have a secret fiancée and Emma despite best efforts to convince herself (“I felt listless after he left and had some sort of headache so I must be in love as well!”) realises he is not the one.

But then who is the one? Why of course it’s the person who she niggles at the most, Mr Knightley. However this realisation on Emma’s part is only brought about by yet another hurdle along the path to true love – Harriet declares to have forgotten the horrid Mr Elton (who has since returned with a fantastically annoying wife played by Juliet Stevenson) and turned her affections to the wonderful Mr K. There are brilliant scenes where Emma is trying to discover why it irritates her so much that Harriet has set her sights on Mr Knightley, and she finally stops listening to the matchmaking nonsense in her head and listens to her heart - “I love him!” The culmination scene where Emma and Mr Knightley reveal their true feelings is a really feel-good climax to a brilliant film.

Although I do enjoy the romantic comedy genre as a whole I know many don’t, but I would still recommend this film as a non-soppy witty romance. In my opinion Emma translates even better than Austen’s other novels to modern day attitudes and sensibilities, as the key protagonist is a highly independent woman of means and therefore not troubled by class issues to the same extent as other Austen heroines. We can relate to the problems of matchmaking gone wrong and that sometimes your ideal relationship lies under your nose with the person you love to hate. The film sticks very closely to the original text (again a testament to the enduring nature of Austen), but the very fact that Emma was brought into the present day so successfully in Clueless shows the timelessness of the plot.

The characters are well-portrayed by a first-class cast. I have touched upon the hilarious Mr and Mrs Elton (Cumming and Stevenson) the most annoying couple ever and thoroughly deserving of each other. In the sub plot there are also fantastic comic performances from mother and daughter combo Sophie Thompson and Phyllidia Law, as the ridiculously dithering Miss Bates and her mother. Another performance of note is Greta Scaatchi as Mrs Weston, Emma’s former governess, often tasked with keeping Emma’s flights of fancy within the realms of reality. Toni Collette (Harriet) and Jeremy Northam (Mr Knightley) support excellently, but Gwyneth Paltrow is just brilliant at the helm. Her portrayal of Emma is much more likable than the spoilt Emma in the book. She strikes just the right balance of petulance, ignorance and belief that she is doing the right thing, so that we can laugh at her, not dislike her and hope it all works out well in the end. Which of course it does!

The music by Rachel Portman provides a perfect ambience, often light and frivolous reflecting the comic banter. The ball scene where Harriet’s attachment to Mr Knightley begins (and Emma and Mr K’s feelings become more obvious to the viewer) features the emotive Mr Beveridge’s Maggot (also used in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice). The scenery is lush and costumes are beautiful, setting off Paltrow’s swan-like neck off to best effect!

Emma has a U certificate and is available on DVD (unfortunately with no special features whatsoever) at a bargainous £5.99 from hmv.co.uk, £5.97 from amazon.co.uk and £5.49 from play.com.

All in all Emma is wonderful cinematic adaptation of a witty and enduring novel. I would heartily recommend it.
 

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