Emma Movie Review

Emma is a 2020 dramedy film directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the titular role. It’s a good-looking, but annoyingly soapy endeavor.

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“Mother, you must sample the tart!“

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Emma Woodhouse, who lives in Georgian and Regency-era England, occupies herself with matchmaking and meddling in the lives of her friends and family. It is based on the eponymous novel by Jane Austen, and like all her other stories, this one is just as annoying and just as full of soap opera conventions that are often even sickening.

The meddling and matchmaking, the gossiping, the highly unlikable characters… those are just some of the things that occupy this quite frustrating movie. Admittedly, the performances are all excellent, especially Anya Taylor-Joy is expectedly terrific in the central role, and Bill Nighy is his usual likable and amusing self. I also liked seeing Josh O’Connor here.

But most of these characters are weak and/or irritating, especially the main character. I did like the friendship between Emma and Harriet, which produced some of the loveliest, sweetest moments, but otherwise the movie is more concerned to appeal to those who find Downton Abbey great, and I certainly do not.

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Emma is gorgeously shot. It benefits from splendid costumes throughout and particularly amazing sets and a meticulous attention to detail in recreating its time period. The movie screams sumptuous period piece and that’s certainly its biggest strength. The score is also strong and some of the dialogue is fine, but most of it, including the humor is reminiscent to telenovelas. Once again, a Jane Austen story was unappealing to me.

Emma benefits from sumptuous production values – the costumes are splendid, the score is great and the sets are all beautiful. Anya Taylor-Joy is also excellent in the titular role. But this is yet another mindless Jane Austen soap opera that is populated with irritating characters and a very slim, annoying telenovela-like storyline.