EMMA
A film review by antpage@aol.com
Copyright 1997 antpage@aol.com
A&E's Emma:
Directed by..........Diarmuid Lawrence Kate Beckinsale......Emma Woodhouse Guy Henry............John Knightley Raymond Coulthard....Frank Churchill Sarah Morton.........Harriet Smith Dominic Rowan........Mr. Elton
Emma the Movie: Directed by..........Douglas McGrath Gwyneth Paltrow......Emma Woodhouse Jeremy Northam.......Mr. Knightley Ewan McGregor........Frank Churchill Toni Collette........Harriet Smith Alan Cumming.........Mr. Elton
For anyone who saw the TV A&E's prodcution of "Emma" or is thinking of it, please wait for the movie "Emma" on video, this is a great story and cannot be missed! The A&E version was not directed by the same person who did Pride and Prejudice and was not nearly as good I feel. And certainly didn't come close to the big screen version of Emma staring Gwyneth Paltrow and directed by Douglas McGrath.
Emma is the story of a rich and influential young women in 18th century England who has set her heart on everybody else's love affairs but her own. She plans to marry off a young women new in her part of the country to a young man by the name of Mr. Elton. When this blows up in her face she doesn't learn her lesson and continues to cause all kinds of havoc to her friend and herself. She later begins to suspect she's falling in love with a man from out of town, the son of a dear friend of hers. But while this is going on is there jealousy in the eyes of her brother-in-law Mr. Knightley? This is what you would call a romantic comedy from the novelist Jane Austen that was copied in the movie "Clueless".
As I said earlier the A&E version was vastly inferior to the movie version, especially the character Mr. Knightley, played by Guy Henry, In comparison to the movie version of Emma with Jeremy Northam playing Mr. Knightley. Guy Henry's chatacter seemed very untrue to the character from the novel. This is kind of curious, were they trying to create another Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride and Prejudice here? I remember the interview of Guy Henry, he was comparing his character to Darcy's character, I remember wondering why they ran that question in the interview because the two characters are very different. I Also remember seeing the video release for Pride and Prejudice advertised and they only mentioned Colin Firth, who played Darcy, as staring in the movie, which I thought was odd because they should have listed Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet before him, but her name wasn't mentioned. I wonder if Colin Firth as Fitzwilliam Darcy was very popular among women. So popular that they wanted another for Emma on A&E. Guy Henry as John Knightley was very one dimensional, like a characterization.
All in all I was very dissatisfied with A&E's production of Emma, and it seems to me that the fault lies with the director Diarmuid Lawrence. To quote Mr. Knightly "Badly done Mr Lawrence, Badly done". What were they thinking? After the excellent movie of Emma from McGrath they should have done some other novel from Jane Austin like Northanger Abby or Mansfield Park. Their version was bland, flat and not worth my time. Especially after the humor and style of McGrath's Emma. Douglas McGrath who directed Emma for the big screen did a great job , I'm going to keep my eye on his work in the future, he made this a very funny and charming movie. Beautiful sets too. Also Paltrow did a far better job than Beckensale too, and of course we know the difference between Northam's and Henry's Mr. Knightly. Northam was great, and true to the role. I still remember Northam's character Knightly when faced with going to a party held by the Elton's saying he'd rather just stay home were it was cozy. And what was the point of the chicken thieves? I hope everyone who hasn't seen Emma will not let the story be spoiled by this A&E production, they should wait for the movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow to come out for rent, which will be out this March.
And so A&E's Emma gets two stars from me, and Emma the movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow gets four stars ( 1 being avoid it, 4 being excellent and 5 being classic ).
-- E-mail: antpage@aol.com Web Page at: http://members.aol.com/antpage Simple Minds Page at: http://members.aol.com/antpage/antswebpg/antsmpg.htm E-Music pages at: http://members.aol.com/antpage/antswebpg/emusic.htm
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