Directed by: Autumn de Wilde
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth, Bill Nighy
Rated PG, 125 minutes
Most moviegoers best know “Emma” by way of Amy Heckerling’s 1995 adaptation, which transported Jane Austen’s Regency-era parlor-room comedy to 1990s Beverly Hills and renamed it “Clueless.” That movie, still a cult favorite, created a lexicon of its own, a visual and verbal vocabulary (“As if!”) that made it a cartoonish novelty while at the same time speaking to its moment in ways that few films do. Autumn de Wilde’s new adaptation, by contrast, goes back to the source material’s original setting, yet is no less impressive. “Emma.” is ultimately a tale of escapism, and while Autumn de Wilde’s version sticks closer to the letter of the book, it unfolds like a dream, a two-hour respite from the worries of real life.
More impressive still is that de Wilde, to this point largely a photographer and director of music videos, here makes her feature filmmaking debut with a lead actress in Anya Taylor-Joy, an actress with more experience in horror than in drama, and a script written by Eleanor Catton, a prize-winning novelist who has no previous screenwriting credits to her name. All this to say, “Emma.” is helmed in many aspects by first-timers—which is surprising, given its sure-footedness, its qualities that would seem learned only through years of practice.
There is the proud, scheming, flirting, demanding Emma herself, played by Taylor-Joy (“Split”) with an instant and continuous charm. Interesting and idiosyncratic characters come and go around her—like her father (Bill Nighy, “Love Actually”), the pre-germ-theory germophobe, or her good-natured friend Harriet Smith (Mia Goth, “High Life”), or the gallant Mr. Knightley (Johnny Flynn, “Clouds of Sils Maria”), Emma’s sister’s brother-in-law, or nosy neighbors, or buffoons, or passersby—but everything returns, invariably, to Emma herself. Emma commands her world completely, all the way to the title of her story; and Taylor-Joy inhabits the role so completely as to make the task look easy, floating through the movie as it rises and falls.
The story itself is a gentle one, a gossipy romance about Emma’s meddlings with the love lives of her friends and the ensuing consequences. De Wilde revels in the simplicity of this conflict, using the lightness of the subject matter as a canvas where she can paint the details with abandon. From the lush pastel colors and idyllic landscapes to the many tall platters of pastries (the movie has a credited “food stylist”) to the intricate costumes whose pieces characters yank at and drop carelessly on the floor, every element is perfectly and ostentatiously in place. Meanwhile, Catton’s script keeps things tidily moving along, weaving in just the right details at the right times to fill out the pleasant, peaceful atmosphere. Parlor-room dramas sometimes get a bad rap—what fun can it really be to sit through movies without suspense, listening to characters speak in lofty, antiquated English?—but “Emma.” is quick and vibrant, as well-composed as a Dutch painting and as entertaining as a sitcom.
But the movie is not style without substance; there are as many moments of physical comedy as there are moments of sincere self-reflection and tenderness. In one of the movie’s best scenes, an already-distressed Emma meets Mr. Knightley under a tree, where the news he delivers puts her into such a state of shock that her nose begins to bleed. He fumbles to offer his handkerchief; she, for the first time in her life at a loss for words, clumsily smears the blood along her upper lip. Like the rest of the movie, the moment is equal parts heartfelt and slapstick, complex in its choreography but immediate in its impact.
Sure, Emma’s neatly tied-up troubles and rich lifestyle are self-indulgent, but the story of “Emma.” treats her situation with sincerity, without making her problems seem any larger or smaller than they are. This is the rare escapist movie that accomplishes something genuine even while it offers a tantalizing and oversimplified version of the world. Anyone can go on vacation and do nothing, but “Emma.” feels like a vacation you return from glowing.
Originally published in The Harvard Press on 3/6/20.