Emma (1996 TV film)

Did You Know?

• The adaptation re-aired in 2007 as part of ITV's Jane Austen Season.
• It was also broadcast on PBS Masterpiece's Jane Austen marathon on 23 March 2008.

Plot

Miss Emma Woodhouse lives with her father at Hartfield in Highbury. Though she has decided never to marry, she takes credit for matchmaking her former governess to Mr. Weston. She resolves to arrange marriages for others, despite warnings from Mr. George Knightley. Emma decides to pair her new friend Harriet Smith with the vicar Mr. Elton, but the plan fails when Elton proposes to Emma instead. New arrivals include Jane Fairfax, Elton's pretentious new wife Augusta, and Frank Churchill. Emma believes Frank wishes to marry her, but the town later learns Frank and Jane are secretly engaged, and Emma realizes her own feelings for Mr. Knightley.

Production

Andrew Davies, who had written the 1995 BBC serial Pride and Prejudice, wanted to adapt Emma for the BBC, but the network had already hired Sandy Welch. Instead, Davies took the project to ITV, and the entire production team from Pride and Prejudice reportedly followed him. Filmed in the summer of 1996 at a cost of £2.5 million, the production used locations including Broughton Castle, Sudeley Castle, Stanway House, Trafalgar Park, Dorney Court, Lacock, and Thame Park.

Themes and analysis

Critics have examined the film for its depiction of class. Lydia Martin noted that Davies' Emma takes a realistic approach by focusing on lower classes that Austen did not emphasize. Carole Dole observed that reminders of Highbury's class divisions appear throughout. The production provides social context with fleeting scenes of the lower classes in a neutral, educational manner, unlike the 1995 film Persuasion, which encourages identification with servants.

Reception

Many reviewers compared the TV drama favorably to the 1996 feature film starring Gwyneth Paltrow. People's Tom Gliatto found it superior, attributing this to Beckinsale's performance, which he described as vibrantly girlish and romantic, and praised Davies' script for capturing Austen's social criticism. Caryn James of The New York Times noted that Beckinsale walks the fine line of an unlikeable heroine beautifully, finding her more believable and funnier than Paltrow. Megan Rosenfeld of The Washington Post called Beckinsale perhaps the best Emma of all adaptations, praising her modern alertness. Gerard Gilbert of The Independent agreed that Beckinsale had the right mixture of sassiness and self-satisfaction. John Carman of the Los Angeles Daily News called it scrumptiously filmed and a feast for the eyes. The Daily Herald gave a negative review, deeming it the worst of three versions, though still natural and faithful, but criticized Strong as miscast.