Emma

English period films have graced the movie screens for a plethora of years, and with their popularity, Hollywood has jumped on the bandwagon and produced a number of them. The author, Jane Austen has fueled the source of many of these period films--"Emma" being one of them, and this being a comedy definitely makes it a plus. 

Jane Austen's beloved comedy about finding your equal and earning your happy ending, is reimagined in this adaptation. Handsome, clever, and rich, Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a restless queen bee without rivals in her sleepy little town. In this glittering satire of social class and the pain of growing up, Emma must adventure through misguided matches and romantic missteps to find the love that has been there all along. 
Emma has her very good friend, Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) whom she constantly plays matchmaker for her finding Mr. Right, however it becomes spoiled when her other friend, George Knightley (Johnny Flynn) realizes that Emma keeps manipulating Harriet so she won't lose her friendship to a future husband. So as George continues being Emma's conscience, Emma simply denies it and it seemingly causes more strife between the two. There are many others attempting to find their way in this world, including a boorish gossiping spinster, Mrs. Bates (Myra McFadyen) to keep the story rolling along, all while Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), Emma's father, has a very lackadaisical and obliviousness toward all those he's around. 

Others to round out the cast are Josh O'Connor as Mr. Elton, Callum Turner as Frank Churchhill, Rupert Graves as Mr. Weston, Amber Anderson as Jane Fairfax, Miranda Hart as Miss Bates, Tanya Reynolds as Mrs. Elton, Connor Swindells as Mr. Martin and Suzy Bloom as Miss Gilbert. 

This was whimsically and satirically directed by Autumn de Wilde ("Six by Sondheim" (TV movie documentary)-- segment-- ("Send in the Clowns") '13), plus video shorts, shorts and videos. This filmmaker is totally new to the feature film arena, and by viewing this film, it comes across as a film that was helmed by a seasoned director. The character development was as such that even when the characters came across is a toned down approach, they were satirically cutting. The TV movie documentary mentioned I'm sure was good considering the approach he had with this film. It was written in a biting, dry powder way by Eleanor Catton ("The Luminaries" (TV mini-series), based on the novel by Jane Austen. As with the director, this writer has virtually zero experience in feature films, but has an incredible flair for creating this satirical world replete with confused characters that are bent on trampling over anyone that gets in their way to find true love, especially Emma. Considering all the different characters involved in this film, this could've been easily convoluted in its writing, but Catton pulled this of in spades. The only issue with this would be that, at times, it was a bit difficult to understand some of the dialogue, but certainly not enough to defray from this witty story. If you like this writing, Catton's "The Luminaries" (TV mini-series) is in post-production. Two aspects that were stunning in this were that of the costume design by Alexandra Byrne and the makeup/hair design by Marese Langan. These production values simply jumped off the screen and amazingly enhanced the production as a whole. They could be looking at a nomination come Oscar time. There is also an American version of this, "Emma" (1996).

If you're a Jane Austen fan, you'll undoubtedly love this production, but even if not, this has an eclectic ensemble of amazing actors that have incredible chemistry, and Taylor-Joy is simply brilliant in her portrayal on Emma, while Nighy was simply a hoot! Enjoy. I know I did.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                        Rated: PG                                               124mins.