‘Emma’ is a well-dressed surprise

Posted on March 13, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

I didn’t go in expecting to dislike “Emma,” adapted from the famous novel by Jane Austen, but I was left honestly surprised by just how much I enjoyed the movie, including the performances, the sets and the costumes. (If this movie doesn’t get Oscar nominations for both costumes and set design, there is no justice.) The movie is also really, really funny. Although admittedly slow at times, I was engaged with the characters and the story from start to finish.

The story is quite simple. Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy, “Split”) is a rich socialite in 1800s England. She is pampered and vain, and feels that she is an excellent matchmaker, which leads her to meddle in the affairs of her friends and companions. To the exasperation of her childhood friend George Knightley (Johnny Flynn, “Genius”), Emma decides to set up her friend, Harriet Smith (Mia Goth, “Suspiria”), a girl with unknown parentage, with the local vicar, Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor, “The Crown”), even though she has eyes for a local farmer. Meanwhile, she finds her own curiosity piqued by the enigmatic Frank Churchhill (Callum Turner, “The Only Living Boy in New York”), even though she’s never actually met the man.

What follows is a series of follies and misunderstandings, social pratfalls and unexpected revelations. As I said, the movie is quite funny, with the funniest character being Emma’s father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy, “Pirates of the Caribbean”). It’s rare for me to mention the Oscars in March, and even rarer for films released this early in the year to be remembered by the Academy, but Nighy deserves serious consideration for Best Supporting Actor.

I think one of the reasons I liked this movie as much as I did is the fact that it doesn’t feel like a movie made in 2020. Director Autumn de Wilde, who makes her feature directorial debut after a career in music videos, and screenwriter Eleanor Catton, in her first and only film-related credit, deliver a mostly traditional version of a story originally published in 1815.

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