Emma.

Focus Features | Release Date: February 21, 2020

6.3	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 125 Ratings

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JLuis_001Feb 27, 2020

The films looks really good and Anya Taylor-Joy does a nice job but in overall this adaptation brings nothing new and while that isn't much of a surprise still felt like an update no one asked for.

Nevertheless this is a nice film and ifThe films looks really good and Anya Taylor-Joy does a nice job but in overall this adaptation brings nothing new and while that isn't much of a surprise still felt like an update no one asked for.

Nevertheless this is a nice film and if you're fan of Jane Austen you will enjoy it but after that there's nothing remarkable or exceptional.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

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The3AcademySinsMar 3, 2020

The newest adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel "Emma" doesn't really add anything new to the table. Still, it looks nice and has a pleasant cast. The production design is really the strong point of this movie, as I felt a lot of theThe newest adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel "Emma" doesn't really add anything new to the table. Still, it looks nice and has a pleasant cast. The production design is really the strong point of this movie, as I felt a lot of the nuances of Jane Austen's original work were brushed over to make this movie more marketable.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

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zmgalen2000Mar 30, 2020

It's good, not great. "Emma." is a movie that serves as decent background content while folding laundry or cleaning the living room, but it is, by no means, anything exceptional. Though strongly acted and beautifully constructed, the film'sIt's good, not great. "Emma." is a movie that serves as decent background content while folding laundry or cleaning the living room, but it is, by no means, anything exceptional. Though strongly acted and beautifully constructed, the film's comedic timing is far off at many points, causing there to be a lack of any emotional ties to the characters or narrative itself.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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AsclepiusMar 9, 2020

The film production saved this one, but let's face it: what we have here is just another Austen adaptation, and Austen seems to run only one plot: one noble man rises above the rest in a world of frivolous social conventions, hopefullyThe film production saved this one, but let's face it: what we have here is just another Austen adaptation, and Austen seems to run only one plot: one noble man rises above the rest in a world of frivolous social conventions, hopefully lifting up the "heroine" in some way. Social commentaries, they most certainly are, but Austen always seems to beg the question: why bother to begin with? The answer must necessarily be found -- due to no other possible explanation -- in the hats and the scenery, which filmmakers have relied upon for years to salvage these detestable stories.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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GlooneSep 26, 2020

I have watched many Austen adaptations, but I think the only truly successful ones have been the BBC's hallowed Pride and Prejudice miniseries, and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. I've yet to watch an "Emma" which hits the mark, which is aI have watched many Austen adaptations, but I think the only truly successful ones have been the BBC's hallowed Pride and Prejudice miniseries, and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. I've yet to watch an "Emma" which hits the mark, which is a shame because the original novel is wonderful. This film is a nearer hit than most, but still a miss.

It's a shame, because Anya Taylor-Joy's performance of the central character is by far the best to date. And the rest of the cast is good, particularly Mr Knightley. The production values are also quite good.

I think it's the screenplay which lets everything down. Everything moves too fast and the story is quite jumbled. Dialogue is perfunctory and does not effectively capture Austen's characters, nor her ample wit. The film has no spirit, because it does not take time to breathe.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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Brent_MarchantFeb 26, 2021

Unless you're a diehard fan of the period piece comedy of manners genre, you'll probably find this latest cinematic version of Jane Austen's classic novel about a self-absorbed genteel woman who fancies herself a matchmaker to be one of theUnless you're a diehard fan of the period piece comedy of manners genre, you'll probably find this latest cinematic version of Jane Austen's classic novel about a self-absorbed genteel woman who fancies herself a matchmaker to be one of the most tedious and unengaging films you'll ever watch. While the production is meticulously assembled in its costume design, art direction and cinematography, with a fine lead performance by Anya Taylor-Joy, the picture is otherwise emotionally flat and astoundingly boring, one that will challenge the patience of even the most tolerant moviegoers. The wit and humor that make this work succeed is virtually nonexistent here, with a bevvy of well-dressed characters prattling on and on about relationships involving people most viewers are likely to care nothing about. Given the many versions of this story that have been made over the years, and in light of the substandard quality of this one, perhaps it's time to give "Emma" a well-deserved rest for a while.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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Rcavey92212Apr 2, 2020

I really wanted to love this. I was a big fan of the Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) version. I love Clueless and I'm a big fan of Anya Taylor Joy (Split). And I did enjoy it I just feel like it didn't do much that gave it much of it'sI really wanted to love this. I was a big fan of the Gwyneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love) version. I love Clueless and I'm a big fan of Anya Taylor Joy (Split). And I did enjoy it I just feel like it didn't do much that gave it much of it's own personality. That being said there's a lot of fun here. Anya Taylor Joy is great in the lead and Bill Nighy is solid as her father. The other players don't command much attention and mostly its business as usual. The movie is colorful and the cinematography is bright and delicate. I just wish the movie didn't take itself as seriously because it could have used a winking eye.

3.25/5… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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DawdlingPoetJul 24, 2022

This is very much a 'prim and proper' frilly tale of its time. As a period drama its ok but not entirely memorable. Some aspects of the story interested me but I didn't feel entirely impressed by this film to be honest. It's ok, with someThis is very much a 'prim and proper' frilly tale of its time. As a period drama its ok but not entirely memorable. Some aspects of the story interested me but I didn't feel entirely impressed by this film to be honest. It's ok, with some gentle comedy at times but nothing exciting or memorable, certainly (though seeing an as ever grumpy Bill Nighy did make me smirk), so no, I wouldn't recommend it as such.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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hnestlyontheslyMar 11, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. “I like all their stupid little hats,” Wife told me after we left when I asked her what she thought and if this (or any) adaptation of Jane Austen was immediate or necessary. I was thinking about the way that period films about domestic drama have come into vogue again, first with The Favourite, then Gerwig’s Little Women, and now with Emma. Wife, who, for the record, says she’s read the book twice and looked a little bit miffed when I interrupted her in the middle of a spirited synopsis two days ago before we went to see it, confirmed what I had secretly and probably unsurprisingly harbored close to my heart for years, “Austen isn’t radical anymore.” What she meant was, marrying for love, dramatizing the domestic affairs of young women, their erotic journey, their subjugation of want for duty or good manners, is mainstream. “The plot of Emma is about women marrying their station: rich women marrying upper class men and so on and so on,” Wife clarified. “It’s not like Jane Eyre.” I am again reminded of the play After Mrs Rochester by Polly Teale that gets me in the gut every time, a play that tries to address the tediousness of colonial capitalism in Jane Eyre and its contemporaries.

Eleanor Catton, surprise winner of the Booker Award-winning novel The Luminaries, wrote the screenplay, which I thought would shine through. I’m reading her debut novel, The Rehearsal, right now and it’s caustic and funny and oddly prescient about the language and observations it makes about teen girls’ sexuality and sexualization years before the #MeToo movement. Catton is brilliant about layering language, making dialogue feel poetic and “recursive”–to borrow a phrase from Alice Fulton last week–and building these moments of emotional high tension in the everyday. I’m still not sure, because of my lack of familiarity with the deviations between the novel and screenplay, what elements are added and which are original to Austen, but I tend to think that maybe Catton is a little underutilized in the act of adaptation.

The moment I find most memorable and suspect has the most potential to deviate from its source material is Mr Knightley’s pseudo-proposal under the arbor toward the end, when he rubs Emma’s cheek and she moans, erotic, pained, regretful, and her nose starts to bleed because of how much stress she’s under, which constitutes this moment of excellent low comedy juxtaposed with the emotional climax of the movie. Anya Taylor-Joy’s delivery is fabulous and classic to her persona, cementing for me her ability to elevate everything she works on whether its Thoroughbreds or Split or the upcoming X-Men debacle.

What I suspect is the climax of the novel, the picnic scene where Emma’s acidic wit reveals itself as lacking judgement and control feels doubly excellent on screen. It’s a moment akin to another film I’ve returned to recently, Blinded by the Light (and in a larger way in Florence Pugh’s performance of Fighting With My Family, where our focalized narrative that’s allowed for us to laugh at the unkind eye rolls and clever side comments is opened up a little so that we can see the emotional collateral damage that these jokes have wrought. We laugh and then when no one but the confusingly mean Robert Martin laughs along–it took me awhile to think through the kind of person you’d have to be to flirt with your fiancée’s rival at a party as a beard for your own secret relationship by actively making fun of her appearance and station: “Martin’s egging Emma on,” Wife explained to me afterwards, picking up on her mean streak and setting her up for disappointment later, which feels like a next-level form of long-term prank planning.

I’m of two minds about this movie, because on the one hand, the acting is a thing of true beauty, especially considering the fact that Mr Elton is played by the sloppy millennial from the indie movie Hope Gap that no one will ever see except maybe on a plane or a sick day on Amazon Prime in a few years and he is so excellent as a weirdo! Taylor-Joy is fabulous and there are some ways in which this movie transports you from the present insanity of the moment, but at the same time, this is brain candy, the emptiest of calories. I’m giving this is a cautious recommendation.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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