Emma

I love Jane Austen (I once took a class entirely devoted to the works of Austen in college and it was probably my favorite class) and I love her novel Emma.  I have literally been counting down the days until I could see this glorious new adaptation which I did yesterday.  After Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy), a wealthy young woman who has no desire to get married herself, is successful in matching her governess Miss Taylor (Gemma Whelan) with Mr. Weston (Rupert Graves), she decides to take Harriet Smith (Mia Goth), a young woman of unknown parentage, under her wing.  She encourages her to reject the proposal of Robert Martin (Connor Swindells) because he is a farmer and she deems him not worthy of her.  She first sets her sights on Mr. Elton (Josh O'Connor) as a suitor for Harriet but he mistakes her interest in him and declares his love for her.  Then she picks Frank Churchill (Callum Turner), whom everyone tries to match with her, but he is secretly engaged to another.  Then Harriet falls in love with Mr. Knightley (Johnny Flynn), a Woodhouse family friend, but chaos ensures when Emma realizes that she has loved Mr. Knightley all along!  Emma's village of Highbury is filled with many eccentric characters, such as her hypochondriac father Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), a chatty old maid named Miss Bates (Miranda Hart), her long-suffering niece Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson), and Mr. Elton's snotty wife Augusta (Tanya Reynolds), who make this story absolutely delightful.  I loved Taylor-Joy's characterization of Emma because she doesn't try to make her likeable but you somehow care about her, nonetheless.  I also liked her chemistry with Flynn because in every one of their interactions you just know that they belong together, especially when they are sparring.  The ensemble cast is simply marvelous and I can't really decide who I enjoyed more:  Nighy as Mr. Woodhouse (the business with the screens absolutely killed me), Hart as Miss Bates (who steals every scene she is in), or O'Connor as Elton (it cracked me up when he opened one eye while he was praying).  Even the actors who play the household staff at Hartfield are absolutely brilliant!  I laughed and laughed at all of their antics.  The production design is sumptuous with beautiful interiors, bucolic exteriors, and period perfect costumes (those empire waists!).  The scene at the ball was my favorite (I wrote a paper about the ritual of dance in Austen's novels for the aforementioned class).  How can just the slightest touch of hands be so romantic?  I loved everything about this movie and I predict that I will watch it several more times (before I purchase it for my Jane Austen movie collection).  I highly recommend it!