Recent Decent Films— ‘Emma’

There have been a recent spate of English classic ‘period’ films, including a Bronte movie, and of course Downtown Abbey. This movie is yet another. It is beautifully filmed at Firle Place in Sussex among other locations. The film is about the trials and tribulations of women in Georgian England, both women of station and working class women as well. The costumes are gorgeous, the hairdos impressive, and the etiquette and customs, including dancing the gavotte fascinating to watch. So much pent up emotion, even in pre-Victorian England, with women passed from fathers to husbands, and not able to inherit much, if anything. The acting in this film is excellent, and Bill Nighy nearly steals the show as the father of Emma. He is the comic relief in the movie. But the new star of this film is Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma who is nothing short of spectacular and so very believable as a clever and yet naive, careful and yet careless young woman who enjoys being a match maker. Johnny Flynn is convincing as the gallant but blunt Mr. Knightley. The film runs just over two hours and involves three weddings. It also involves a minister who marries….. poorly. Oddly, it involves classic hymns like ‘How Firm a Foundation’ sung acapella while there are outdoor scenes. This seems quite odd. In general, the only interesting religious note is the beginning of the vicar’s wedding sermon where he says that marriage began in the age of innocence— i.e. before the Fall with Adam and Eve.

If this movie seems familiar there was a BBC TV version and twenty plus years ago, a Gwyneth Paltrow version as well. This is easily the best of the bunch. Jane Austen lived from 1775-1817 and wrote six classic novels, ‘Emma’ being perhaps her third best known after Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. One of the real virtues of her novels is that she very accurately chronicles the mores of the time in which she lived, an era just after all the Wesleyan revivals of the 18th century. This is an excellent film for families, and especially for mothers and daughters to have a serious conversation about proper male female relationships. Highly recommended. The movie is rated PG on the basis of one scene involving a naked man’s rear end.