Emma (2020)

This lush and cinematically beautiful take on Hane Austen's classic novel is well worth your time, no matter how many versions of the story you have watched beofre. Charm abounds in this version--there is no Academy Award for that, and in fact this one is nominated in the arenas of costume and make up, but you will not find it wanting here. Emma Woodhouse is played by Anya Taylor-Joy (of The Queen's Gambit fame) and Bill Nye is her father, and they are pitch perfect for their roles. She is aptly portrayed as little more than a child herself, and she gets in way over her head. Truly, match-making is tricky. It requires subtlety and finesse. It probably, also, requires a professional. Left in the hands of enthusiastic amateurs, match-making often leads to heartbreak, and that is famously what happens here. The uniqueness of the story is that the man who loves Emma, Knightly (Johnny Flynn, a singer-songwriter-actor, is just superb here), tells her exactly what he thinks about what she has done, but not in a weird controlling way, but because he sees her as being better than that. She is not seeing the facts of the matter clearly and he is surprised and disappointed, but does not love her less for it. There is a valuing of women that pervades Austen's novels that is so satisfying and makes the stories enduring. This is a very solid telling of a tale that many know very well, but will not be sorry you gave it your cinematic attention.