Emma.

EMMA. / FOCUS FEATURES

Autumn de Wilde’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s 19th century novel Emma. arrives in 2020 with one foot placed firmly in its 205-year old source material and the other in the charming and reliable, if not somewhat cold, world of the now popular British period drama.

Emma. follows intelligent yet somewhat thorny protagonist Emma Woodhouse, a 21-year old member of the upper-class landed gentry, as she weaves her way into the love lives of those around her – and not always for the better. Emma has been born into a wealthy family and as such, is somewhat spoilt in a sense, finding it easy to insert herself and her opinions into the lives of those who may be “lower-class” than herself. Nevertheless, she is often compassionate and well-meaning, and lead Anya-Taylor Joy balances this good nature with just enough inherited-arrogance to tell the audience everything they need to know about Emma and what kind of a person she is, often through the look in her eyes more than the dialogue she speaks. The whole film is brilliantly cast, in fact, and Mia Goth stands out particularly as the doting, innocent best friend of Emma, Harriet Smith.

Emma.(s) attention to perfect casting is indicative of the film’s primary quality: the genuine love and care for the source material. The screenplay comes courtesy of author Eleanor Cotton, alongside Jane Austen herself, and this stands to reason, as a lot of the film’s script plays out on screen as if it has been lifted verbatim from the book – published some 205 years ago. This respect for the material is admirable and nicely compliments the film’s production design and director de Wilde’s attention to period-accurate detail. Having said that, this approach is also what mostly gets in the way of allowing Emma. to truly flourish as a distinctive piece of cinema. By directly lifting passages from a book as old as this is somewhat isolating and gives the film a piercing coldness that is difficult to break through. The language is undeniably beautiful and written down as prose, it undoubtedly works to illustrate a sprawling and engaging story. On-screen, though, it sometimes falls flat, leaving the story to meander confusingly in places.

Nevertheless, Emma. is visually interesting and its performances are well-cast and well-directed enough to carry through a sometimes flat, unexciting screenplay. The characters, and the world itself, feel lived in and real and that’s always a bonus for any film, in particular those adapting previous works.