Emma (1996)

Emma
Directed by Douglas McGrath
Written by Douglas McGrath from a novel by Jane Austen
1996/UK
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon rental

Mr. Knightley: Vanity working on a weak mind produces every kind of mischief.

Shockingly, I had not yet seen this adaptation of Jane Austen’s wonderful novel.

Emma Woodhouse (Gwyneth Paltrow) is rich, beautiful and 21. She keeps house for her kindly but hypochondriac father. A daily visitor to the Woodhouse estate is neighbor Mr. Knightly (Jeremy Northham). As the story begins, Emma is congratulating herself on making a match between her former governess and a wealthy businessman.

Emma is now bored and meets Harriet Smith (Toni Collette), the naive natural daughter of who knows whom. Emma’s next project is to make a match for Harriet. She quickly persuades Harriet to reject the marriage proposal of a prosperous farmer and begins to lay a plot to match Harriet with the local vicar Mr. Elton. This fails disastrously.

I don’t want to spoil the nifty plot for anyone so will stop here except to say that it takes a while for Emma to get over herself. The fun is seeing how she gets there. With Ewan McGregor as Frank Churchill.

I love the book and I really enjoyed this film. Paltrow does well and Toni Collette is hilarious. The only nit I would pick is that Northam seems too young to play Mr. Knightley but he is so appealing I didn’t mind much.

Rachel Portman won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the first woman to do so. The film was nominated for Best Costume Design.