Flicks, Amanda Jane Robinson
Emma is a fine, fun adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, with an exceptional lead performance and decadent styling making up for some of the film’s messier elements.
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Emma (2020)
Jane Austen's classic romantic novel on the perils of misconstrued romance, adapted for the screen by New Zealand author and Man Booker-winner, Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries). Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) plays Emma and Bill Nighy is Mr. Woodhouse.
This is the fifth film adaptation of the 1815 novel, if you include 1995's Clueless, which we do.
2020Rating: 10-12PG, D P125 minsUK
ComedyDramaRomance
- Director:
- Autumn de Wilde (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Eleanor Catton
- Cast:
- Anya Taylor-JoyBill NighyRupert GravesJohnny FlynnMia GothGemma WhelanCallum TurnerMiranda Hart
Emma (2020) / Reviews
New Zealand Listener
The matchmaking, interfering, terribly good-intentioned snob was a heroine who Austen herself said might only be loved by her creator. Here, she’s played with a slightly spooky remove by Anya Taylor-Joy in what is a hypnotising performance at the centre of an amusingly eccentric ensemble.
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The Guardian
Novelist Eleanor Catton has scripted this amiable, genial and interestingly unassuming new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Regency classic, the great prototype romantic comedy, though it may be truer to call it a marriage comedy or marrcom.
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Empire Magazine
It should be a delicious chocolate gateau but Emma. makes heavy weather of Austen's charmer, delivering a tonally uneven, mostly airless affair.
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Stuff
Nighy and Miranda Hart (as the bumbling, breathless Miss Bates) are terrific in their cameos, while the choice of Goth and Taylor-Joy (best known for their performances in horror movies like Suspiria, The Witch and Split) seems truly inspired.
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Sydney Morning Herald
As always with Austen, it’s a portrait in microcosm of England as it was. Yet its insights remain as fresh as ever.
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Time Out
Autumn de Wilde puts a subtly contemporary stamp on 'Emma' and there's a message here for the Insta generation.
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The Times
Emma, with all her preening, gossipy self-love, is somehow the perfect Instagram-age heroine. Her actions in this adaptation and with Taylor-Joy's characterisation are not those of a giddy romantic obsessive, but of an unapologetic, empowered woman.
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Hollywood Reporter
A largely faithful and unchallenging adaptation, beautifully staged and sharply acted by a cast adept at balancing wit and romance.
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IndieWire
"Emma" only grows more assured as its namesake loses her balance, the pastel splendor of Christopher Blauvelt's cinematography and the vocabulary-defying genius of costume designer Alexandra Byrne endowing this classic story with a new energy all its own.
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