電影《艾瑪.》影評：[Film Review] Emma. (2020) 7.0/10

The feature debut of famed American photographer and music video artist Autumn de Wilde, her option is a remake of Jane Austen’s EMMA, about the Regency-era romance do-gooder Emma Woodhouse, embodied by a doe-eyed Anya Taylor-Joy, whose importunate meddling the objects of other people’s affections takes a tortuous route to realize who is her significant other.

Many eligible bachelors and maidens dwell in Emma’s village, and under the impression that she is a born matchmaker after facilitating the knot-tying of her governess and the wealthy widower Mr. Weston (Whelan and Graves), her next goal is Harriet Smith (Goth), a young girl of obscure lineage, yet, Emma deems the tenant farmer Robert Martin (Swindells) is below Harriet’s status (a classist prejudice that Emma is apparently oblivious to), in lieu, she tries to pair Harriet with the seemingly convivial local vicar Mr. Elton (O’Connor), to the obvious objection of George Knightley (Flynn), the brother of her brother-in-law, that the outcome leaves Harriet heartbroken and prompts Mr. Elton to a swift marriage with a girl hailed from elsewhere.

While the unexpected occurrences give Emma pause for her wayward actions, her own fancy-free disposition is tickled by the advert of Mr. Weston’s son from a prior marriage, Frank Churchill (Turner), who is to be an heir of an estimable estate, yet, further misapprehension will drag her, Frank, George and Harriet into the imbroglio where nothing comes out as she hopes, after a blunt faux pas which she wishes that she could have bitten her tongue off, Emma finally obtains the clarity of what her heart actually desires, and before soon, everything is rosy again in this leisure class fluff.

De Wilde clearly has a particularly cunning eye and knack for conjuring up delight in aspects like color, light, costume and set design, EMMA. is so scrumptious to the eye and mellifluous to the ear (madrigals and contradances are amply doled out), that it is simply so easily to abandon oneself to its period éclat and all the trappings, specially the gorgeous millinery and cadence of posh articulation, yet, if one has seen Douglas McGrath’s EMMA (1996), a fine star-vehicle for Gwyneth Paltrow, de Wilde’s iteration certainly errs on the side of fidelity without any tangible attempt to upgrade it to today’s ethos (an exemplar is Greta Gerwig’s LITTLE WOMEN, 2018), by sustaining its very strict gender roles of its time, even buttressed by a choice ensemble - led by a dainty if haughty Taylor-Joy (though a far-cry t0 rival Paltrow in compassion-eliciting), with Goth, O’ Connor and Flynn all devote their finest delivery to induce various effects (distressing, funny, stirring, or simply droll), not to mention Nighy quietly steals the show as Emma’s draft-fearing, widowed father, himself is a low profile match-maker right from the off - one can only comment lamentably, all’s well that ends well.

referential entries: Douglas McGrath’s EMMA (1996, 7.1/10); Whit Stillman’s LOVE & FRIENDSHIP (2016, 7.2/10).