Wonderfully told

kayper54

I really liked this new take on an old, but much-beloved story. I liked the livelier and more robust presentation, and though it was less refined than the other "Emma" productions have been, I find I didn't really miss the refinement. I think the spirit of "Emma" was well-served here. I was also glad to see a little bit of the story through the eyes of others: Frank Churchill alone at the window, holding the most recent note from his aunt that he knows will summon back to her much too soon for his liking. That doesn't appear in the book, but I really liked it here. Also, a few scenes taken from the day-room of the London-based Knightly family to give a fresh perspective of the events happening in Highbury. Emma actually worries that maybe she has been too much sheltered and is really not as well-traveled as a truly sophisticated person would be expected to be. The book's Emma never even considers this. It's simply never brought up, but it doesn't make it any less viable in this telling of the story.

Harriet's story, which takes up the first 3rd of the book and a good part of most of the film adaptations is given a secondary treatment here, and we are at last gifted with a Mr. Elton who looks nothing like the clown he is made out to be in other adaptations, but is more true to Miss Austen's words; a pretty decent-looking young fellow. And an interesting twist on his marriage: rather than going along with his horrid, snobbish wife, he actually appears several times to be embarrassed by her behavior. Christina Cole is fabulous as Mrs. Elton and is not given enough screen time, but they would have needed another hour at least to devote to her all the time she deserved.

At last we have a Jane Fairfax who is worthy of Jane Austen's description! She is played here by Laura Pyper as delicate and as refined as she is written, but she is not the fragile, stiff and emotionless mannequin she is made out to be in every other "Emma" film I've seen. She has feelings and shows them, both positive and negative. This is the first adaptation I've seen where I actually LIKED Jane. And for once, Mr. Knightly is played by an actor who is actually the age Mr. Knightly is supposed to be: and attractive, still-young man in only his mid-30's. In all the other adaptations, he's portrayed by actors much older than the 16 years that are supposed to separate Emma and Mr. Knightly. Once again, I feel that Emma's father is played too harshly. He is, of course, a hypochondriac and worrywart of the worst sort, but Miss Austen writes him so much more kindly and warm-hearted than he is ever portrayed on the screen. Miss Bates is toned down a bit here, which an avid reader of the book might not really notice, but she is not given enough time to really show the incessant chatterbox the character is in the book.

In the end, it would be safe to say that Marianne Dashwood would have approved of most everyone in this story. They were all played with full feeling and emotion around an old story that is made new again.

I've always wondered, though, about a couple of crucial scenes in the book and of course portrayed in all the film/TV adaptations that deal with characters complaining of the heat. They are all dressed from the toes to the gills in multiple layers, and as a person living in a part of the USA that regularly sees 100  temps in the summertime, it does make me wonder just how "hot" the weather was supposed to be.

score 8/10

kayper54 4 December 2010

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2348297/