I know it's been 20 years, and I love the book, but it feels a bit soon for another film of "Emma"

[nineveh_uk]

Though that sentiment is probably in large part because having seen the trailer, I am deeply unconvinced.

"EMMA Trailer (2020)" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

Precisely. Mr Wodehouse is not a cheerful cove who Emma can exchange sarcastic remarks with. AS soon as they are a double-act, things are completely different.

This Emma looks like she should be playing Lucy Steele.
And a not particularly intelligent Lucy Steele at that. Emma would never do that finger-prod at the window that she does to Miss Bates - if she's routinely rude it completely defangs the Box Hill scene (and there wouldn't be a Box Hill scene, which comes surely not just in the moment but out of a build-up of Emma being driven out of her mind being polite to boring people over a long period of time).

I think I might rewatch the Paltrow version, which I've got on video. Although quite light, it does get that Emma is clever.

[azdak]

I have to admit that I don't love Emma, precisely because the stultifying boredom of Highbury comes close to driving me out of my mind. I'm in awe of Austen's ability to make that world come so vividly to life but Miss Bates makes me want to scream - even though I recognise that Mr Knightley is quite correct about why she nonetheless deserves politeness and kindness.

[nineveh_uk]

In real life I think that Miss Bates would have me running through the hills, and I have huge sympathy for Emma not having snapped up to this point (also for the fact that she and Jane Fairfax are obviously never going to be friends for understandable reasons on each side). But I like her very much as a character in Highbury, perhaps partly - as with much of Emma - because she was fun when I was doing it for A-level, but also in later reads.