PROVOKR PICK: EMMA
Anya Taylor-Joy Takes on Jane Austen's Matchmaking Heroine
1995 gave us Clueless, the Amy Heckerling adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. It took the book’s plot and set it in a 1990s-era high school in Los Angeles. The movie quickly became a classic teen comedy. Now, in 2020 we get a new film based on the beloved book from director Autumn deWilde. And this movie hews closer to the original source material than Heckerling’s Clueless.
Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split) stars as the titular Emma in this comedy about romance and social class. Emma Woodhouse is a wealthy young woman living in a sleepy hamlet with her father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy). To entertain herself, she cannot help but meddle in her friends’ lives. Usually, that takes the form of matchmaking. Of course, she isn’t a particularly good matchmaker, and she is prone to falling into her own romantic misadventures. All the while, her longtime friend and confidante, George Knightley (Johnny Flynn), tries to dissuade her. Eventually, Emma realizes her true love has been there all along.
While Jane Austen initially believed the central character of Emma would be a not-well-received heroine, the book was almost immediately popular. And it continues to be loved. In addition to Heckerling’s and this new version, there are two more film adaptations, a Gwyneth Paltrow project from 1996 plus an Indian adaptation, Aisha, which came out in 2010. There are also multiple television and stage projects. Currently, this latest adaptation has a 94% approval rating on the review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes.
Rounding out the cast are Josh O’Connor (God’s Own Country, The Crown), Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones, The End of the F**king World), Mia Goth (Nymphomaniac: Vol. II, Suspiria) and Rupert Graves (Maurice, Sherlock).
See Emma in theaters beginning February 21, 2020.
