My Emma binging continues with this new movie version directed by Autumn de Wilde. Yes, the screen radiates color and spectacle, ritzy Regency-era outfits and bonnets abound. England of 1815 never looked so good as de Wilde’s cameras capture the glamorized mansions with their luxurious furniture, paintings, and sculptures. Anya Taylor-Joy may be the most beautiful of all the Emmas in these film presentations of Jane Austen’s novel. Taylor-Joy plays Emma as petulant and occasionally arrogant–which makes her fall at the end of the movie much steeper than in most of the Emma films I’ve seen. The script is by Eleanor Catton who slowly builds the action throughout the movie. I’m a big Bill Nighy fan, but he is mostly wasted as the hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse. Johnny Flynn plays Knightley without Jonny Lee Miller’s apparent aloofness. De Wilde makes it clear that her Knightley is hot for Emma early in the film. Mia Goth captures the fragility of Harriet Smith convincingly. Miranda Hart manages the difficult role of Miss Bates by making her character both a chatter-box and a woman with heart-rending vulnerabilities. Although she wasn’t given much to do, Amber Anderson as Jane Fairfax steals every scene she’s in.
Diane and I saw Emma at our local AMC theater with six other people in the audience. If this becomes typical of movie audiences in the time of the coronavirus, then a lot of movies are going to fail at the Box Office. GRADE: B
Jackie wants to see this after we see the Liam Neeson ORDINARY LOVE this week.
WE definitely have concerns about things like concerts and sporting events, especially as we already have five or six sets of concert tickets for this Spring and Summer. But I am more concerned about getting on the subway and being packed in that time bomb situation where one person could infect hundreds, If you’ve been following the story of the lawyer from Westchester, there are two dozen infected so far, including his wife and kids, his friend and his friend’s family, another person who drove him to the hospital, people at his temple and his law firm, etc. This guy was riding Metro-North into Grand Central and walking through it to work on 42nd Street! Who knows how many other people were infected before he knew he was sick, and how many each of them might have affected.
And this was ONE guy in one city. Meanwhile, Mr. MAGA goes around spreading misinformation (and dis-information, for that matter) and telling people there is no place safer than one of his rallies. He blames everyone in the world but himself. We are probably f#cked.
Jeff — probably? Try well and truly.
Jerry, I agree with you. The US was completely unprepared for the coronavirus. And now we’ll pay the price…
Yeah, you are right. I was just reading how the “very stable genius” thinks he has an innate understanding of all this that is amazing all the doctors at the CDC. We’re definitely doomed.
Jeff, this coronavirus outbreak is going to be worse than it needed to be. Japan and Korea are testing 10,000 people a day. THE ATLANTIC magazine has a story that in the US we’ve only tested about 1,800 people. Pathetic!
Jeff, the coronavirus continues to spread all over the world. The coronavirus has exposed how woefully unprepared the US is to deal with a pandemic. Chances are pretty good that all of us will get the coronavirus sooner or later.
How could the guy not know he was sick if he was coughing and sneezing?
Rick, people minimize the affect of their symptoms. And many people are prone to denial.
Although I’ve seen all the films and television shows, EMMA remains the only Jane Austen novel I have ever read. I am a Philistine.
Jerry, I’ve read all of Jane Austen’s novels. Mark Twain was NOT a Jane Austen fan. Here’s what he wrote about Austen:
“Whenever I take up “Pride and Prejudice” or “Sense and Sensibility,” I feel like a barkeeper entering the Kingdom of Heaven. I mean, I feel as he would probably feel, would almost certainly feel. I am quite sure I know what his sensations would be — and his private comments. He would be certain to curl his lip, as those ultra-good Presbyterians went filing self-complacently along. …
She makes me detest all her people, without reserve. Is that her intention? It is not believable. Then is it her purpose to make the reader detest her people up to the middle of the book and like them in the rest of the chapters? That could be. That would be high art. It would be worth while, too. Some day I will examine the other end of her books and see.”
– “Jane Austen,” published in 2009 in Who Is Mark Twain?
The only reason I’d want to see this is for Bill Nighy, so will be a Netflix for me.
I went to a play last sat. Fly a take on peter pan with Wendy as the hero. It was first staged as a tryout, maybe in the early 2010’s as I recall and never as an actual play, but it’s said to be on it’s way to broadway. I liked, not loved it. Best character was Tink, followed by Hook and Smee. Peter was boring. I didn’t consider the virus and we ate at Calif Pizza Kitchen before the matinee.
I might be offered free tickets today to see Outsider a political farce, which probably focuses on the stupidity of Napier’s hero, tRUMP. How this stable genius’s “hunch” could ever be taken seriously by all but his ignorant and deluded fans is beyond me.
The fact that the orange virus gutted the CDC makes us so very vulnerable. But hey, he said some people with mild cases could go to work, and it’ll be gone by April, so . . . . . I hope that only his supporters will get it, but sadly that won’t be the case.
Maggie, there’s a trend toward “rewriting” classics and featuring the women characters. I remember reading Robin Maxwell’s JANE, a retelling of the Tarzan adventures from Jane’s perspective.
Trump is not my hero.
PS not only are face masks and purell gone from everywhere, but now alcohol and aloe vera gel is now disappearing. Even witch hazel is nearly gone. To make purell, you mix 70% (or above) alcohol with something like aloe vera gel (to prevent drying out of skin) in probably a 4-1 mixture. One cvs has small bottles of purell behind the counter, most places are completely out.
Rubber gloves were still avail last week, at least at Costco. I always have rubber gloves as I use them under my gardening gloves and when I mix meat loaf, etc.
I also use the face masks for dusting and cleaning my ceiling fan blades also on the plane after my 6+ week cold last year. sadly, I don’t have too many of them.
Maggie, fortunately I bought a box of masks about a month ago.
Hey, the warm weather will destroy it, right? Well, maybe not in Iran. Or here in Florida, where two people have died so far, even though it was 94 the other day.
They showed a young woman being interviewed on MSNBC. She doesn’t believe in the virus (but it believes in you, sweetie), insists it is “a hoax.” (I guess she missed that Trump no longer claims the virus is a hoax.) When the incredulous reporter asked about the two dead people in Washington (at the time of the interview), she insisted it was all a hoax. She said she wouldn’t believe anything a Democrat said, no matter what.
Jeff, invincible ignorance is impossible to overcome. Singapore is hot right now and the coronavirus is spreading. Heat might not affect the disease. We know so little about the coronavirus.
George, I’m sure you both wore masks to the theater.
As a side note, in your reviews, I just have to skip the parts that go so-and-so, played by so-an-so as they are meaningless for me, so I have to skip them. That sorta depletes the review to the first few lines, but I guess all your other readers demand to know who the actors are and what roles they play…
Rick, I try to identify only the major stars and make a comment on how well (or how dreadful) they performed. Most of my movie reviews are about 10% of the length of a movie review in a newspaper or magazine. Short and sweet.
I’m with Twain.
Bob, many readers don’t like Mark Twain for a myriad of reasons. I like both Mark Twain and Jane Austen’s work.