I usually don’t like costume dramas. Or costume comedies, for that matter.
By feeling the need to level the writing to the flamboyancy of the dresses, those movies tend to forget that visuals are also in camera work and narrative is also in the internal.
In recent years, however, we’ve been getting some really innovative costume dramedies. The Favourite should have won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2018, and Little Women, just last year, established Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan as two of the best people in the film industry.
Or, in 2016, when Jane Austen’s novella “Lady Susan” was adapted to the comedy Love & Friendship, offering a costume comedy where the writing was more elevated than the dresses, and Kate Beckinsale’s best career performance.
Emma. is another Jane Austen adaptation, of her novel of the same name (1815). When looking at the trailer, I thought, well, this is another Love & Friendship, but the quips don’t seem as razor-sharp.
Yes, they are not as snarky, but the writing is as high level, and the cinematography is even better.
Let’s get this out of the way: the costumes are great, they really meld into the scenery. The hairstyling, in particular, express a lot of personality and storytelling.
The high water mark, however, is the articulation between the production design and the cinematography. In period pieces like these, with people talking in rooms, the temptation is to close-up on the actors and trust that the background is enough baroque to do the trick. Not in Emma.
Here, the sets are another character in the conversation. Not only are they designed with the right balance of décor and functionality to look lived-in, but also are shot in a way that their colors and contours almost encircle the dialogues. And we also get to experience some very refreshing outdoor sceneries that prove that this costume dramedy knows where the story lives.
Complementing these pristine visuals, the movie also has a very beautiful soundtrack. A comfortable motif as a through-line, with occasional adventures into the lyrical and rustic when the writing itself gets bolder.
Notwithstanding, all those aesthetic choices would fall flat if the film did not have a fulcrum of heat. To solve this, Anya Taylor-Joy enters the scene. She’s fervor restrained. In just one character, she is a masterclass in three feelings so hard to pull off in cinema: handsome, clever and rich. “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”
Anya is no longer a promising young actress. She’s already a really good one, that makes me watch movies just because she’s in them. That’s why I decided to take a risk on Emma, after the trailer failed to impress me. I had seen her in Thoroughbreds in 2017 and bought stock immediately.
Finally, a word of note for director Autumn de Wilde and screenwriter Eleanor Catton: it’s their first feature film! And a Jane Austen adaptation!
As you can attest from my opinions above, they are now in my radar, and I’m curious about their next work in the medium. Congratulations 🙂
Opinion Seed 