EMMA (2009)

If you are game to losing four hours of your life to this sort of self-generated misery and silliness, you will no doubt delight in the superb cast in this Masterpiece Theatre production.  

For those of you who (like me) have no Austen on your bookshelves, Emma is the story of a sheltered young woman who discovers a talent for matchmaking.  After a couple of successful pairings, she deems herself something of an expert, even though she’s never been in love herself, never intends to marry, and has never seen the ocean.  Indeed, Emma Woodhouse’s life has always been confined to Highbury, where a cast of close friends has animated her world.  The care of her widowed father (Michael Gambon) has always been a chief concern, and it is presumed that she can never leave him alone.

It makes sense then, given Emma’s bright mind and confined life, that she would delight in tinkering with the personal lives of others.  After befriending Harriet Smith (a bastard girl of questionable lineage), Emma promptly decides to educate her new bosom buddy and find her a perfect match.  Ignoring the fact that Harriet is universally regarded as simple and low-class (though pleasant and good-natured), Emma encourages her to refuse a proposal from the man she loves simply because he is a farmer.  Her attempts to find Harriet a husband who is above her station are cringe-worthy to say the least, and it’s not long before Emma has us in knots with her meddling.  Clearly a girl who knows so little of the world should not be tampering with such life-altering decisions...especially when they are not her own.

As with all romantic comedies, things do right themselves in the end, even for Harriet.  Emma herself finds love (oh-so-predictably) with her longtime friend (and intellectual equal) Mr. Knightly (Jonny Lee Miller).  This leaves a girl to wonder why exactly she invested four hours in a movie she figured out within the first ten minutes.  You instantly know that Emma and Mr. Knightly need to get together, and any decent  notion of romance tells you that things can’t go down the toilet for Harriet... lest the whole thing dissolve into a tragedy.

If you are game to losing four hours of your life to this sort of self-generated misery and silliness, you will no doubt delight in the superb cast in this Masterpiece Theatre production.   As Emma, Romola Garai is as exasperating as she is endearing.  Her wide-eyed expressions and forced smiles never come across as acting, but rather as Emma’s own insecurity.  She’s an intelligent, spirited young woman who sometimes has to feign confidence and poise to compensate for her inexperience.  This at least humanizes a fairly irritating character.  Jonny Lee Miller’s Knightly is a breath of fresh air as an English gentleman who is as refined as he is down to earth.  As an audience, we’re not forced to peel back layers of snobbery and reserve to discover a thoughtful, decent man underneath.  There’s an openness to him that is utterly charming and relatable, and there’s a lot to be said for watching him go toe to toe with the stubborn Miss Woodhouse.

DVD NOTES

DVD extras include featurettes on “Emma’s Locations”, “Emma’s Costumes”, “Emma’s Music”, and “Emma’s Mr. Woodhouse” (an interview with Michael Gambon).