Based on a timeless novel Emma by Jane Austen, this latest movie adaptation of her book is a beautiful, gorgeous and entertaining re-make that should easily please Austen fans old and new as it looks phenomenal. Its cast, led by the terrific and wonderful Anya Taylor-Joy, are/is utterly splendid. "Emma's" script is adapted by novelist Eleanor Catton (The Luminaries) and manages to capture much of Austen's own comedy, translating it elegantly to the screen. The result is a stylish and eminently watchable movie adaptation. In addition to the script, the production values are stellar, while movie is visually stunning and impeccably researched - it really felt like an authentic window into the 1800s. At the end, film - updated in all the right ways - is filled with an abundance of genuine charm. For those who are fans of the period drama this is a must see, while this gentle film, also, deserves to introduce Austen to a whole new generation.

Rating: 7+/8-

Emma. (2020) was directed by Autumn de Wilde. Jane Austen's novel was published in 1815. Two hundred years later, the novel still is wonderful. (OK--not Jane Austen's best novel, but still wonderful.)

Emma can be successfully transformed into a movie, but this isn't that movie. Director de Wilde is experienced, but primarily in TV. Anya Taylor-Joy, who portrays Emma Woodhouse, is red hot right now, as the star of The Queen's Gambit. Playing Emma will prove to Hollywood that she has a broad range of talents. Well, that was the game plan, but it didn't work. She's definitely a 21st Century woman, dressed up in 19th Century costumes.

In the novel Mr. Knightley is much older than Emma. Johnny Flynn who portrays Mr. Knightley in the movie is, indeed, much older than Emma, but he looks like her contemporary. I'm sure that he's glad that he's so youthful looking, but it doesn't work in this movie.

Bill Nighy, who plays Mr. Woodhouse is an outstanding actor, but he too is miscast. In the novel, Mr. Woodhouse worries about everything, not just drafts as portrayed in the movie. Nighy is calm and steady--he doesn't adapt to the role of the dithering Mr. Woodhouse.

An actor who deserves praise is Amber Anderson, who portrays Jane Fairfax In the film. Anderson performs the third movement from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 12 on the fortepiano and she's not dubbed! This is even more of an astounding accomplishment, because Anderson normally plays the piano. She had to relearn the piece on the pianoforte, which is a similar--but not identical--instrument.

The soundtrack of the movie is unusual. Director de Wilde has chosen some wonderful folk music performed by outstanding folk artists. However, the songs on the soundtrack were played with no apparent relationship to what we were seeing on the screen. It's almost as if de Wilde reached into a bag of songs and threw whatever she happened to find into the soundtrack in a random fashion. Very strange.

If you are a Jane Austen superfan, you may want to see this version of Emma for the sake of completeness. Otherwise, I would avoid it. Emma. has a weak IMDb rating of 6.7, but I didn't think it was that good, and rated it 5.

It's early 19th century England. Carefree 20 year old Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) comes from an upper class family. She befriends lower class girl Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) and tries to set her up with the local vicar Mr. Elton instead of tenant farmer Mr. Robert Martin whom she sees as too low class. She fails to see the reality of the situation and George Knightley (Johnny Flynn).

This is a costumed comedy. It's more Brit quirky than laugh out loud funny. There is something within the material which really bothers me. It's the overbearing influence of differentiating the classes. We're supposed to support Knightley's pairing of Harriet and Robert but the reason for the pairing is problematic in today's world. The morality of maintaining the classes is completely flipped around over the last two centuries and that makes the story problematic. I want to root for Knightley's pairing but I hate the reason for it. The purest moral and emotional hit has to be Emma's callous comment to Miss Bates. Those sequences pack a more powerful emotional gut punch than the rest of the movie combined which gets often entangled by the class system. I wish that the movie tied a prettier bow for that thread at the end.