Miscast and Deliriously Misconceived.

maryborrege

Awful--barely watchable.

The reason to love Austen is in the suppressed tension she creates with her wit and satire and in the unique characteristics of her players juxtaposed with the manners, protocol & sensibilities of the country gentry of the Regency period. Fidelity to character and the written word is virtually non existent in this version. The reinvented dumbed down dialogue intended to pander to contemporary sensibilities is tiresome juvenile gibberish. Save for the houses they occupy there is no effort to distinguish one class from the other. Every character appears to be the same non nondescript/ill-defined dolt. Austen's refined, high spirited, and intellectual heroine, as played by Garcia, is actually more insipid than Harriot and as common as Mrs. Elton. (27 year old Garcia's caricature is a repugnant dithering idiot deficit of the credibility to preach to anyone.) The actor who plays Knightly has the accent of a clerk and is totally lacking in the stature, refinement, and commanding air of a great gentleman of that period. No Emma/Knightly sparks whatsoever--just endless squabbling. And WHO could envy or admire Pyper's Jane Fairfax? Add to this, the most interesting sub plots & dialogue were ignored and reduced to nothing. With the exception of the veteran Gambon (miscast and understandably making himself scarce) the ensemble was without distinction, the direction/script Austen/Regency clueless.

Once the masters of period drama, this ill conceived production is becoming typical of Britian's classical literature productions in the 21st Century. A lost art.

The condensed Beckinsdale A&E version and her Mr. Knightly (Mark Strong) is by far the best, most sharply fine tuned version of Emma. The motion picture of the mid 90s is lovely and elegant to look at and is the most humorous take on Austen's beloved book providing a pleasant companion piece to Beckinsdale's superb take.

Had ONLY the Beckinsdale version been in three long episodes!

score 1/10

maryborrege 1 February 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2200726/