Emma

The 1996 Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow is such a delight. Wow, it came out over ten years ago and back when the movie first came out I do recall, I found the movie too slick and snappy and missing key elements of the weighty novel. Right now I am listening to Emma on librivox.org, so I can more accurately compare the novel with this movie. I see now that it made sense to take out a lot of the stray plot elements and also was surprised how much of the movie’s dialogue comes right out of the novel. Gwyneth Paltrow is a charming Emma and the sexy Jeremy Northram is probably way too cute to play the staid Mr. Knightly but he is fun to watch in the part. Oh, and I forgot that Ewan McGregor plays Frank Churchill (making me think he often plays goofy fops (see entry on Stay). Oh and don’t forget Sophie Thompson, Emma Thompson’s sister, as the chatterbox Miss Bates; she is a hoot in this movie, and her mother in the movie is her real life mother, Phylida Law. It was a lot fun watching Emma again.