I have a bit of a long-standing relationship with the works of Jane Austen. Like most high schoolers, Pride & Prejudice was a big part of our required reading. Unlike most high schoolers, I have a father who adores her work so much that he’s read every one of her novels. Of course I got the requisite exposure to most of same through the various adaptations that have been produced since the late 80’s. I still, with some point of pride (no pun intended), recall my big senior year term paper that was focused on male archetypes in Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, and Emma. My dad gave me the idea for it, but I did actually read those books! And I got an A.
So I’m always excited about the possibility of a new Jane Austen film. A few years back, the ever underrated Whit Stillman turned over one of the few “stones” remaining in the Austen legacy, when he adapted her early novel Lady Susan as the incredible Love & Friendship. More than anything, that experience reminded me that there’s still some great material to mine out of Austen’s masterpieces, no matter how trodden this territory might be. Which leads us to Emma. The period is actually part of the title, for reasons that aren’t especially clear.
Emma. is the latest go at the tale of Austen’s well to do matchmaker, of which there have been three big screen takes previously (the most notable being Amy Heckerling‘s iconic Clueless) and a number of television reworkings that are legion. This latest of the former comes from Autumn de Wilde, the rock photographer turned filmmaker who makes her debut here. More than anything else, this take on Emma oozes style. So much of de Wilde’s music video past comes to the fore, with many a sumptuous shot, and the camera lovingly embracing stunning costumes by Alexandra Byrne, de Wilde is a filmmaker who clearly knows what her best skillset is at this early point in her career.
Though her nascent talents are honed towards the visual end, de Wilde’s storytelling sensibilities are not quite up to par. Despite a fairly game cast, anchored by meteoric star Anya Taylor-Joy as the eponymous Emma Woodhouse, and the ever delightful Bill Nighy as her amiable (and rather hilarious) father, and moments that spring the film to life, so much of this 2020 take on Emma fails to escape what I like to call the “Masterpiece Theatre trap.” This is the idea that lavish costume and production design can do all of the work for you and engrossing narrative flow can sit on the backburner. A good example is something like Downton Abbey; Antiques Roadshow bait as a television drama if I ever saw one. No matter how arresting Lady Crawley’s newest tea set was, it couldn’t elevate some pretty dire storytelling. Emma. (again with the period) never sinks that low, but it also never really does much of anything terribly interesting to justify its own staid existence.
Though, to be fair, de Wilde doesn’t express any real ambition here beyond casting out a frothy net for those viewers who are already among the converted. If a handsome costume comedy of manners is what you need, this is basically what it advertises on the tin, and there’s a number of moments where performances sing through the morass. Recent The Crown standout, Josh O’Connor, is a wonderful Mr. Elton, perfectly sliding into my favorite Austen archetype: the foolish male suitor that no one particularly enjoys the company of. But these peaks come in rather rare fashion, where the more dynamic elements are outflanked by the bland presence of Johnny Flynn‘s George Knightley or Callum Turner‘s Frank Churchill, and I honestly can’t think of a better metaphor of experiencing the film. Once we finally get to the scenes of Knightley (whose relationship to Emma’s father is never actually made very clear on screen, all the more to the point that this is one for the fans) pining away at Emma, I was basically thrown into a pit of defeat by tedium, longing for the presence of Paul Rudd’s modern day iteration.
Emma. will do the trick for your average Austen die-hard, but for those who are looking for something with a little more charm (and succinctness) might be advised to look to one of the earlier takes.