Emma

Emma
ITV
16 February 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

Pride & Prejudice screenwriter Davies also penned this Austen adaptation, which is streamlined (just two hours) but satisfying.  It's well cast, particularly the two leads of Kate Beckinsale as Emma and Mark Strong as Mr. Knightley.  Beckinsale captures Emma in a way that Gwyneth Paltrow (in the big-screen release of a few months earlier) couldn't, from her snobbery to her whimsicality.  Strong is a plain-spoken gentleman, not as handsome as Jeremy Northam of course, but with his own more direct charm.  (When he tells Emma that she's made Harriet too tall in the portrait, this is the Knightley of the book.)  Certainly the Frank/Jane romance is treated better here than in the theatrical release.  My review of that version is available for comparison: http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/04/emma.html, but note that I think both versions are inferior to Clueless:  http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/03/clueless.html.  I would've liked to have seen some characters, such as Emma's sister Isabella, developed more, but there are no plot threads left hanging at least.  Things end not with a wedding but with a harvest festival, in recognition of the lower classes we see throughout the movie, a subtle visual comment that is not called attention to in the script.

Peter Howell was a Magistrate in Jeeves and Wooster and is Mr. Perry here.  Neville Phillips, who was a Member on J & W and Fossett the Footman in P & P, is Thomas here.  Lucy Robinson, who was Mrs. Hurst in P & P, plays another unlikable but more memorable character here, Mrs. Elton.  Nineteen-year-old Samantha Morton, who plays Miss Smith with sweetness and not too much dimness, would take on two very different roles later in the year: Jane Eyre and Sophia Western.