Emma (2020) - Movie Review

 -May contain major spoilers-

Emma is a period romantic comedy film based on the novel of the same name by Jane Austen. It was directed by Autumn de Wilde with music by Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzer and premiered on February 14, 2020, in the United Kingdom.

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn and Bill Nighy.

Summary

Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) lives with her hypochondriac father, Henry Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), on their Hartfield state in Highbury. She is beautiful, wealthy and a bit spoiled and has many hobbies like playing the piano and painting, but after the wedding of her friend and governess, Miss Taylor (Gemma Whelan) and Mr. Welton (Rupert Graves) - she was the one who introduced them - Emma decides that her new favorite past time is matchmaking (as she declares she is never getting married). 

Her friend and neighbor George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), who tends to be critical towards her (in a helpful way), disapproves of her newfound hobby. 

Emma, although happy for the marriage of her friend - the now Mrs. Welton - feels lonely and looks for a new companion. She finds Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), a pupil at Mrs. Goddard's school who doesn't know her parents and on account that her school is paid for, Emma thinks that she is secretly the daughter of a gentleman.

When Emma and Harriet go to visit Mrs. Welton, they meet Mr. Elton (Josh O'Connor), the vicar, Emma comes up with the idea of matching them up.

Harriet receives a marriage proposal from one of Mr. Knightley's tenants, Robert Martin (Connor Swindells). Harriet seeks the approval of Emma, who thinks that Mr. Martin is below Harriet's standing, and although she says she is not going to interfere she lightly persuades Harriet to turn down the proposal, much to Mr. Knightley's anger, who is sure that Emma had something to do with it.

Mr. Elton thinks that Emma is in love with him and proposes to her Emma rejects him and tells him that she thought that he was in love with Harriet, which angers Mr. Elton as he thinks Harriet is below his standing, leaving Harriet broken-hearted. Mr. Elton goes to Bath and comes back 6 weeks later married to Augusta (Tanya Reynolds).

Mr. Weston's son, Frank Churchill (Callum Turner), arrives in Highbury and so does Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson), the niece of the talkative Miss Bates (Miranda Hart), making Emma happy at Frank's arrival but envious of the attention Jane is receiving, especially from Mr. Knightley. 

Harriet starts to interact with Mr. Knightley, leaving Emma with a twinge of jealousy and now Emma has to come to terms with her feelings towards Mr. Knightley... 

Thoughts

Emma is a really charming and funny movie that has a lot of thought and love put into it, although at parts it feels a little bit quirky, for an example see the scene where SPOILER after the love confession between Mr. Knightley and Emma her nose starts to bleed SPOILER ENDS. I have watched - almost - every adaptation of Emma and I have to say that this one became my favorite (in second place is the BBC miniseries with Romola Garay and Johnny Miller).

The cinematography of this movie is an aesthetic masterpiece with a lovely pastel color palette (even Emma's own house interiors are pastel green). I really like the vignette-like format to separate the different seasons and mark the passing of time, although I have to say at first it feels a little bit disjointed.

The acting is seriously good, everyone does a great job, especially in the most uncomfortable scene (in my opinion), the one with the awkward picnic. That scene along with the one (if you know you know) from Persuasion always makes me cringe.

Anya Taylor-Joy does a great job of portraying how, although well-intentioned, Emma is a tad manipulative and you can see in the microexpressions that she makes how Emma is calculating her next move.

Johnny Flynn is swoon-worthy and charming as Mr. Knightley and I really liked how he portrayed the parts of inner turmoil of his character.

By the way, every actor that sang or played an instrument did so themselves (I mean they were not dubbed)

The soundtrack is really good and fits the Regency period perfectly. Every song has a lot of charm to it (see [hear] how charming Emma and Mr Knightly themes are), I really liked them all, but I don't know if it's just me or when the chorus sings in the movie it sounds a bit too loud compared to the rest of the movie (I watched it with earphones).

The costumes are super well done and have a lot of research put into them and you can see some of the costumes are reproductions of real pieces of the era (please read this well-written post by Willow and Thatch about the costumes of Emma) and although in my review of Pride and Prejudice, I wrote that "the costumes are more of a storytelling medium than a 100% accurate representation of the time period" I have to say that Emma manages to do both the accurate representation and the storytelling perfectly (I still love 2005 P&P though).

I recommend this movie if you like period pieces that don't take themselves too seriously, beautiful costuming and a beautiful soundtrack.

Rating

Acting - 10/10

Plot - 10/10

Romance - 10/10

Soundtrack - 10/10

Cinematography - 10/10

Costumes - 10/10

Mr. Woodhouse air drafts - 10/10

Overall Rating - 10/10

Expanded Movie Info

Run Time: 124 minutes (2hs 4min).

Release Date: February 14, 2020 (In the UK).

Based on: Emma by Jane Austen.

Directed by: Autumn de Wilde.

Cinematography by: Christopher Blauvelt.

Screenplay by: Eleanor Catton.

Edited by: Nick Emerson.

Music by: Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzer.

Costumes by: Alexandra Byrne.

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy with Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Gemma Whelan, Rupert Graves, Callum Turner, Amber Anderson, Josh O'Connor, Tanya Reynolds and Connor Swindells.

I hope that if some one does a new adaptation of a Jane Austen novel they put as much love into it as this one (I hope that movie is Northanger Abbey)