Emma Is Not Quite the Expert Matchmaker She Fancies Herself to Be

As much as I enjoy Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, my Jane Austen immersion remains limited. I had intended to read Emma before I watched any of the adaptations, but when the Gwyneth Paltrow version of this story about a well-intentioned but disastrously clueless matchmaker came up on Netflix, my curiosity got the better of me. I found this film, adapted and directed by Douglas McGrath, just as funny and romantic as I have come to expect Austen to be.

Paltrow is Emma Woodhouse, a young woman who lives with her cantankerous father (Denys Hawthorne), a man she loves dearly. With his resources, she is at leisure to enjoy whatever pursuits she desires, and she has no desire to change her status as a single woman. Indeed, she feels perfectly content, particularly when Mr. Knightley (Jeremy Northam), an old family friend, is around for her to trade verbal barbs with. However, Emma does not believe that the life of a spinster is desirable for most women, and after she has a hand in bringing together a happy couple, she decides to devote her attention to matchmaking. Unfortunately, Emma’s instincts tend to be far off-base, and her help is more of a hindrance and a set-up for heartbreak.

Her main efforts are concentrated upon her new friend Harriet Smith (Toni Collette), who truly does not need any help in this department. Harriet already has a blossoming friendship with a man who seems an ideal match for her, but Emma disapproves, considering him beneath her station and not wanting to be cheated out of the chance to be the vehicle for someone’s true happiness. The man Emma has in mind for Harriet is Mr. Elton (Alan Cumming), a preacher with a bubbly personality. Harriet’s insecurities are such that she allows Emma to influence her, but what’s obvious to everyone else is the fact that Mr. Elton is interested not in Harriet but in Emma herself.

Paltrow and Collette play well off of each other, with the former all poise, charm and maddening confidence and the latter a bundle of anxieties and uncertainties. Harriet is a sweet, rather dim-witted woman with a crippling lack of self-confidence who puts too much stock in the advice of Emma, who lavishes far more attention upon her than she is used to. Emma, meanwhile, is likable, clearly wanting the best for Harriet, but her meddlesome tactics are often exasperating, as is her blindness to the disconnect between her perceptions and reality.

Northam is appealing as Knightley, who is so adept at matching wits with Emma and is nearly the only person in her life willing to take her to task for her insensitivities. Cumming brings an affable, rather silly demeanor to Mr. Elton, while Ewan McGregor brings gregarious charm to the role of Frank Churchill, who turns up midway through the movie and immediately captures Emma’s attention. Probably the performance that amuses me most is Sophie Thompson as Miss Bates, a spinster with little money and a nervous habit of prattling endlessly and going into fits of high-pitched giggles. How Emma relates to this fellow singleton becomes an important element in the story.

Not having read the book yet, I am spared the task of drawing comparisons and bemoaning all of the intricate subplots that no doubt had to be left out. Simply on its own merits, I found this 1996 version of Emma to be a funny, well-acted, visually satisfying film about the dangers of playing around with other people’s hearts.