Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility. Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice. Amy Heckerling's Clueless. And now, Autumn de Wilde's Emma.
Yeah, it's that good.
Firstly, yes - you read that right. Not only is the classic (fight me) 1995 comedy starring Alicia Silverstone one of the capital "G" Great Jane Austen adaptations (fight. me.), but part of what makes it work so well is also worth examining in how it relates to the qualities of Autumn de Wilde's debut feature film (um, wow) that manages to nail a deceptively tricky aspect of bringing the playful author's works wholly to screen.
See, filming a book is partly about successfully transposing a longer-than-screen-usual narrative to a feature film running time, but also about capturing a certain ineffable something that is transportive about the work in the first place. Generally, this is done by focusing on a single aspect of the story and digging deep into visualizing it - for example, Lee's Sense and Sensibility goes full awkward '90s romance with its charming leads (complete with Hugh Grant in Peak Awkward Hugh Grant Mode), whereas Wright's P&P is all drawing room melodrama and manners-over-feelings complete with sweeping countryside standing in for the depths of feeling masked by societal propriety. Neither of these approaches are wrong, to be sure, but they're not the only way to do it.
Enter Clueless, which adapted the novel of this 2020 film's same name by brilliantly re-framing it as a high school coming of age comedy. A sheltered lady becomes a pampered California socialite and the film's production design and costuming heighten reality to the point where it feels like a period piece set in 1995 that was made 20 years after in order to underline the bubble that our heroine finds herself initially adept at navigating and then thwarted by. Emma. (the period is part of the title) opts for a similar visually rich approach, but uses it as a way to capture the feeling of actually reading Jane Austen. Because it's not just the comedic misunderstandings or witty character banter that make the author's work stick, it's the clever turns of phrase and barbs in the prose (which can never be organically recreated onscreen) that make the author's work singular. Screenwriter Eleanor Catton, also on her feature debut (ok, they're both that good their first time at bat? holy crap) and de Wilde embrace Austen's playfulness through the visual language of the film, finding a sweet spot both between the aching romance and occasional clownish foppery that makes for something almost like a Wes Anderson movie you could actually feel comfortable living in.
Emma herself (in a powerhouse leading turn by Anya Taylor-Joy) is a wealthy and content English lady doting on her father and amusing herself by playing matchmaker with the members of her local community. Spoiled by nearly all those around her aside from her sister's brother-in-law Mr. Knightley (a gloriously sideburned Johnny Flynn), she seldom encounters more hardship than a family friend who won't stop talking about their niece's letters, and makes "projects" of women like Harriet (Mia Goth) who have little social standing apart from their proximity to Emma herself. This carefully constructed diorama winds up collapsing out from under Emma's good intentions with the arrival of mysterious gentlemen, family quarrels, and thwarted romance as various characters pine after other various characters and are mistaken for having feelings for still other various characters.
And the brilliance of the film is how it captures both the genuine humanity of these sometimes tempestuous tide pools of close-knit society (like making an offhanded joke at a friend's expense that cut far deeper than intended) but also the ludicrousness of "Society" itself. Not only are the actors game for a surprisingly deft load of physical comedy, but they're also throwing themselves into Aching Longing, and de Wilde's direction and deliberate framing manages to ensure you can see who's making googly eyes at who from across the room while also seeing who mistakes the intended target of said googly eyes. The chemistry between the cast members is electric even for those who only share a handful of scenes together, with Taylor-Joy and Flynn finding a serious "Beatrice and Benedick" level of Shippable Quarreling Comrades. Anya Taylor-Joy also hides a raw emotional center under a perfectly-manicured artifice that she peeks out from behind of just often enough to foreshadow its eventual crumbling at a low point in the film, conveying vanity and stubborn pride as well as genuine kindness - a tricky mixture to nail (there's a reason Clueless decided "eh, teenagers are supposed to be kinda shitty anyway").
Emma. manages to find a way to bring originality and vitality to a genre and story that have seen plentiful entries in the past couple decades, and does so by showing off the exciting voice of a new filmmaker confidently planting their flag on the scene. The film truly lives up to the poster - you'd be hard-pressed to find a recent film as handsomely shot, cleverly written, and richly detailed as this one.
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