Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781558905733
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 1558905731
Label: Miramax
Manufacturer: Miramax
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Miramax
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 1999-01-05
Running Time: 121
Studio: Miramax
Theatrical Release Date: 1996-08-02

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Sense & Sensibility (Special Edition) Persuasion Mansfield Park (1999) Emma (A&E, 1997) Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey

Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Gwyneth is great!
Comment: Wonderful movie! I highly recommend you read Jane Austen's book EMMA first. Gwyneth gives a geat performance as Emma.If you are a Jane Austen fan, you will love this movie!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Love It!
Comment: My favorite Jane Austin movie. I've watched it over and over again. Paltrow does a fabulous job blending coy with intelligence.

Customer Rating:

Summary: EMMA by Jane Austen
Comment: Who could not love Gwyneth Paltrow's performance in this version of Emma??? She is beyond 5 stars- and the story flows and is done brilliantly - all the actors were well done. I have seen all the versions ever produced and love this one far above the others.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good Chick Flick
Comment: I absolutely LOVE this Mr. Knightly... I think I like him better than Mr. Darcy. Okay so maybe not but it is REALLY close.

Customer Rating:

Summary: The ultimate feel-good comedy of manners
Comment: It's been said that for two weeks every year, the countryside of England is the closest Earth comes to Eden.

That is the England of Douglas McGrath's 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, "Emma." Starring Gwyneth Paltrow (pre-"Shakespeare in Love") and a host of British acting aces, "Emma" is a pure feel-good romp through England's strict Victorian manners.

Emma Wodehouse is living her life by arranging the lives of others, content to try to arrange the marriages of the Harriet Smiths (Toni Collette) of the world to the Mr. Eltons (Alan Cumming). Romantic misadventures abound, particularly when the dashing Mr. Churchill (Ewan MacGregor) shows up and the equally dashing Mr. Knightley (Jeremy Notham) begins to look like something a bit more than a best friend.

McGrath keeps all this romantic folderol clipping along at a blithe, cheery pace, complete with pitch-perfect soundtrack and gorgeous camera work. But perhaps the most moving scene is where Emma bares her claws and tears into a ridiculously chatty friend (played perfectly by Sophie Thompson) only to have Mr. Knightley call Emma out. This is the prototypically Jane Austen scene - the exactly right words say so much with subtext even though they aren't that damning at first light. To say the actors handle this scene well is an understatement.

Perhaps I should give this movie five stars. It's tough to do so - both the Jane Austen filmography and the spate of terrific English romantic comedies are crowded fields. While I can't say "Emma" is the best film I've seen, it is surely one of the most enjoyable, smile-inducing flicks I've watched in a long time. A sure-fire winner.

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Editorial Reviews:

Most people didn't mind Gwyneth Paltrow's English accent in this charming, 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen's novel (which also inspired Clueless). But even if it doesn't sound quite right to you, there are plenty of authentic and wonderful Brit thespians in this film by screenwriter-turned-director Douglas McGrath (co-author of Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway), including Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeply), Alan Cumming (Buddy), Phyllida Law (Much Ado About Nothing), Ewan McGregor (the Scots star of Trainspotting), and Sophie Thompson, outstanding and finally heartbreaking as the chattering Miss Bates. Paltrow plays Austen's benign busybody, Emma Woodhouse--so busy trying to arrange the lives of others that she is sidestepping her own. McGrath brings a kind of pretty and light touch to the production, his best move the wise delegation of creative authority to the actors themselves. --Tom Keogh