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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 26 February 2020

Review: Austen’s ‘Emma,’ humanized

but not modernized

By JOCELYN NOVECK for her music video work Anya Taylor-Joy, left, as
Associated Press and rock photography. The Emma Woodhouse and
There’s beauty to spare in quietly magnetic Johnny Johnny Flynn as George
the new screen adaptation Flynn, who plays Knightley, Knightley. (Focus Features
of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” is also a singer-songwriter via AP)
from its palatial country (he sings during the closing The misunderstandings are
estates with their art-filled credits) and will soon por- too numerous to describe.
galleries and manicured tray David Bowie onscreen. But the proceedings are
lawns, to the exquisitely The soundtrack is by Iso- beautifully paced, and
detailed costumes (those bel Waller-Bridge and Da- the movie feels light and
This undated image provided by Focus Features shows Anya feathered bonnets!), to star vid Schweitzer — yes, that airy, like a pleasant dream.
Taylor-Joy as Emma Woodhouse in director Autumn de Wilde's
film "Emma." Anya Taylor-Joy, whose Waller-Bridge. (She also There’s one strange ele-
Associated Press porcelain skin and blonde wrote music for sister Phoe- ment, and it’s hard to tell if
ringlets look like they be- be’s “Fleabag.”)And OK, it’s intentional: The school-
long in a Botticelli painting. he’s not a millennial, but girls, of which Harriet is one,
But wait, what’s the un- it’s high time we mention periodically walk through
sightly red gush from her the film’s most delectable the village in hooded red
nose that emerges dur- delight: Bill Nighy, playing capes and white hats, look-
ing a climactic romantic Emma’s hypochondriacal ing very familiar to anyone
scene? Is Emma, um, hav- father, Mr. Woodhouse, who’s seen “A Handmaid’s
ing a nosebleed, amid all with such marvelous com- Tale.” Is this a coincidence,
this pristine beauty? ic flair that you wish the or is de Wilde making a
Why, yes she is. movie were called “Em- statement about the lim-
That nosebleed, director ma’s Dad.” Nighy teaches ited choices women have
Autumn de Wilde has said, a master class in delivery. in 19th-century England? In
is an effort to show that no Give him a line, any line — any case, the costumes by
matter how elegant and say, “Do you feel a draft?” Alexandra Byrne are terrific
refined we may be, we’re — and watch what he throughout.
composed of flesh and does with it. Of course, the real ro-
blood. And that our bodies But back to our hero- mance here is between
intruded and betrayed us ine, whom Austen herself Emma and George, and
back in the early 19th cen- called “a heroine whom no it’s a slow burn — but it sure
tury, when the novel was one but myself will much has heat. The spark begins
written, just as they do now. like.” Actually, that seems a at a ball, with long glanc-
It’s a way of humanizing bit harsh. Certainly Emma’s es and tentative touches,
this new “EMMA.” — the a spoiled young thing, but and is ultimately revealed
title contains capital let- even when she’s at her in a climactic scene both
ters and a period, for some worst, she’s never mean- delicious and, well, a little
reason — without exactly spirited — just clueless, as bloody, like we said.
modernizing it. Unlike, say, the 1995 incarnation star- But George has a handker-
Greta Gerwig, who in “Lit- ring Alicia Silverstone was chief, and, in the spirit of all
tle Women” played with named. (Other famous Em- the rom-coms that have
both structure and con- mas: Gwyneth Paltrow on descended from “Emma,”
temporary plot elements, the big screen and Kate everything somehow irons
the filmmakers hew pretty Beckinsale on TV). itself out just in time.
close here to Austen’s origi- We meet her as she’s just “Emma,” a Focus Features
nal 1815 tale of a rich, well- completed a successful release, has been rated
meaning but self-involved match, for her governess. PG by the Motion Picture
young woman who med- Next on the list: her impres- Association of America
dles in everyone’s affairs sionable orphaned friend, “for brief partial nudity.”
of the heart, and basically Harriet (a poignant Mia Running time: 124 minutes.
mucks it all up. Goth) who pines for a young Three stars out of four.q
Anya Taylor-Joy. (Focus farmer, but is convinced by
Features via AP) Emma to eschew him in fa-
Not that the film doesn’t vor of a man of higher so-
have flashes of modern cial status, the vicar Mr. El-
sensibility. Warming her- ton (a slapstick-funny Josh
self by the fire, Emma at O’Connor.) Problem is, Mr.
one point bares her bum. Elton pines only for Emma.
George Knightley, her And Emma thinks she’s in-
eventual love interest, first terested in the wealthy
appears in his birthday suit. Frank Churchill (Callum
And there’s plenty of mil- Turner), who turns out to be
lennial cred here, onscreen secretly engaged to Jane
and off: Screenwriter El- Fairfax (Amber Anderson),
eanor Catton, 34, was the the niece of Miss Bates (an
youngest person to win excellent Miranda Hart),
the Man Booker prize (at the garrulous woman who
28, for “The Luminaries.”) Emma thoughtlessly insults
Director de Wilde is known along the way.