Emma [DVD]

Great film, was fun

This a great feel-good film and one which I always reach for when I want some light entertainment and romance. I also love the Kate Beckinsale version and usually I always have a preference for one or other where there are two adaptations of a story to pick from, but in this case they really are on a par. They are individual pieces, both very well made with much to recommend them.Although this is a Hollywood version, with lavish costumes and beautiful settings, it is not over-glitzy or modernized in any way. Gwyneth Paltrow, who I always like, plays a brilliant character with elegant poise and a perfect english accent. Emma is the most frivolous and perhaps least easy to like of all Austen's heroines, but she manages to play her in such a way as to make the viewer understand and love her all the same. By the end, she has matured and learnt so much and it is the natural progression for her to realise her feelings for Mr Knightly and marry him.The story is packed with humour as Emma sets about match-making and meddling in the lives of almost everyone she meets, ultimately resulting in disaster. The scene at Box Hill is brilliantly done and is definitely a highlight of the show. The proposal scene with Mr Elton is also hilarious. Ewan McGregor is perfect as the dashing but roguish Frank Churchill and Sophie Thompson captures the ridiculous but loveable Miss Bates. Also look out for a fleeting glimpse of Corrie's Richard Hillmann (Brian Capron) as John Knightly.

This is a rapid and flashy version of Jane Austen’s last novel. If you want vast Regency houses in the kind of weather which always remembers the season – the kind of weather that only exists in fiction - and if you want to follow the lives and loves of beautiful, prosperous people who all live happily ever after then look no further.I don’t mean any of this as a criticism but it is hard not to feel short changed. In 116 minutes almost every turn of the novel's plot is at least touched on but I couldn’t help wishing that a little more time had been allowed to provide some suspense. It seems like no time at all between Emma’s first disastrous foray into match-making and the happy ending. Jane Fairfax’s impending doom to live the life of a governess is briefly raised and then happily resolved. Poor old Frank Churchill (an under used Ewan MacGregor) diappears entirely once his engagement is announced. There is no point watching a love story (or a detective story for that matter) unless our anxieties are allowed to grow – will they won’t they? – and for that we need time.Emma is a novel of locations but in this version there is little or no sense of place. A clever opening sequence explaining the different houses is wasted as it looks like all the scenes take place in or against the same book-lined, candle-lit, sandstone, neo-classical pile. This is a gorgeous production. Rather too gorgeous in fact. Ladies of the period did not let their skins develop the golden tans of Gwyneth Paltrow or Toni Collette for pale skin was a sign of high status. Although the houses are candlelit there is clearly no lack of central heating as Gwyneth and chums parade through a Christmas party in sleeveless dresses.The cast make a good effort with the brief script. Emma’s character transformation is brought about so quickly that disbelief does not so much have to be suspended as hanged, drawn and quartered. I dock three stars for that. But I can forgive a film a lot if it looks good so I’ll give one back. The DVD has no extras at all, not even a spurious ‘Making of…’, no, not even a trailer but at the current price of £6.99 that doesn't matter.On balance it's OK but I preferred Clueless and I never thought I'd say that.

A great adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. Not quite on the same level as Pride & Prejudice but a great period piece regardless

Ok film

I'm not at all sure that I would have chosen Gwyneth Paltrow to play Emma but I thought she portrayed the character very well indeed. Inevitably films need to compress the action and leave out many of the scenes which are essential to a novel. This is where a TV series spread over several episodes can really score over a film adaptation. I thought that some of the Frank Churchill/Jane Fairfax story was sacrificed in order to fit everything into the time allowed and as a consequence many of the film audience might have drawn the same conclusions as Emma did about Frank Churchill.I did think this was a good film overall though I did think that it showed Frank Churchill to be the cad he was which isn't necessarily obvious on first reading of the book as the hints are quite subtle. Jeremy Northam was excellent as Mr Knightley and Miss Bates was well done too. Overall this is an excellent film and I enjoyed watching it.

Handsome, clever, rich... the young Emma seems to have all virtues, together with a disposition of thinking a little too well of herself. Her favourite hobby is match-making, though she is not interested in getting married herself. Passing from a ball to a tea, from gossip to charity, in the end she will fall in love too and find happiness with the man she had just considered her best friend so far.With a light touch, the film faithfully recreates the atmosphere of the book, one of Jane Austen's masterpieces, a comedy of errors set in the Romantic Age.A charming Gwyneth Paltrow is perfect for the role; and Ewan Mc Gregor is incredibly in-tune...Witty and fun. Emma (Wordsworth Classics)

This was ok, with an impressive cast, but it wasn’t as engaging as either the BBC mini series or the most recent version directed by Autumn de Wilde which I thought was truly excellent. In those versions, Mr Woodhouse was played charismatically and memorably by Michael Gambon and Bill Nighy respectively. As played by Denys Hawthorne in this version, the character hardly registers and he’s given very little to do. My recommendation is to watch either or both of the other two productions instead.