Emma

Emma

Autumn de Wilde (director of Emma) has had an emphatic career in the world of music. Photographing CD covers for ‘The White Stripes’ and ‘Beck’ to directing music videos for ‘Elliot Smith’ and ‘The Raconteurs’. But with Emma she finally steps into the world of fictional features and with a large weight on her shoulders, adapting one of Jane Austen’s most acclaimed novels.

Anya Taylor-Joy plays the titular character, the handsome, clever and rich girl that meddles in the romantic affairs of her friends and loved ones. It’s a simple plot with almost no plot at all, but rather a chain of events that lead to a somewhat fulfilling conclusion. But with many period pieces of Emma’s standard, the ensemble being rich pompous landowners leaves little room for the audience to empathise with these characters who have every demand served at their feet. Advertised as a comedy, where the comedy is apparently found in Bill Nighy’sconfused expressions. Whilst it tries to have the relationship between characters find chuckles as well, it finds itself ultimately lacking in any of the comedy that it tries to achieve. Especially considering that most of the laughs are centred on this ensemble mistreating and being rude to their servants.

Emma appears to be like the period pieces that came before it, simple stories that find their acclaim in their grand designs, costume, hair, make-up and so on. Whilst it’s a marvel to see the preparation that has gone into this and to acknowledge that these departments did a marvellous job in recreating the detail that Jane Austen had written in 1815, a scene involving a dance around chairs is a particular highlight of this work. Unfortunately the film’s praise stops there.

Period piece’s obsession with the past ultimately ruins these movies and Emma is another culprit of this. We aren’t in this world and this story isn’t trying to come into ours, we are only seeing modern actors playing dress up. But even these actors can’t turn these characters into enjoyable or likeable people. Through Emma’s perspective we meet the likes of Miss Bates (Miranda Hart), characters that Emma herself despises meaning the audience too grow indifferent to the supporting characters around Emma. But with Emma being bitter and selfish, realising the error of her ways, she too is unable to allow the audience sympathy for her. Leaving two hours of rich people running around proclaiming false love and heartbreak whilst bickering behind each other’s backs. It’s elaborate and idiotic but not in an Armando Ianucci way where the over-stylisation is part of the charm, but instead an annoyance that never seems to fade away.

It doesn’t help the film that it’s chaptered storytelling through different season’s makes two hours feel like twenty. The pacing is way off with an abundance of technical rules like breaking the line that are left squandered without any real purpose. From a genre obsessed with the past, with no altering or modernising, Emma will leave you with the feeling of ‘why did they even bother’.