Emma (2009)

television

This is a four-part version of Jane Austen’s classic Emma (2009) starring Romola Garai as our misguided heroine and Jonny Lee Miller as the long-suffering Mr Knightley. Sometimes, I despair of the BBC. It collects all this licence money and could spend it making original drama or adapting any number of wonderful books. Yet it persists in remaking “classics” as from the pen of Jane Austen. At this point, I’m not commenting on the worth of this particular adaptation, but questioning whether any rehashing of old favourites is a good way of spending our money. Frankly, I see no good reason why production companies should continuously strive to produce the “definitive” version of any classic when we already have more than adequate versions in hand. It all seems so unnecessary in cultural terms. This is not to deny a market for any drama that is reinterpreted for our time. I’ve sat mesmerised in theatres up and down the country as new shafts of understanding about human nature cross the centuries from the quill pens of outstanding playwrights and pierce my befuddled brain. But, more often than not, these productions have been radical, relocating the play to different times and, on occasion, reshaping the language to fit. I can imagine the outcry if the BBC were to offer a modern-dress version of Emma. People would feel uncomfortable without the period costumes and props. They might actually have to listen to the words and watch the action reinvented for contemporary England. New objectivity might then offer a better measure of the quality of the story and what it has to say to us about human nature.

Michael Gambon, Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller looking like a family

My first impression is that Jonny Lee Miller looks and/or acts the wrong age as Mr Knightley — although, at my age, everyone on television looks generically young. He’s supposed to be thirty-seven as against Emma’s twenty. This gives him the benefit of experience and also explains why Emma would not immediately think of him romantically. Unfortunately, at first sight, this pair look to me about the same age and strike sparks off each other much as you would expect from bickering lovers. This is not taking anything away from either performance. But the casting does blur a rather important element in the story, cf this is the reason why Marianne Dashwood (aged sixteen) does not immediately favour Colonel Brandon (aged thirty-five), who does look his age in Sense and Sensibility (2008).

Blake Ritson looking for love (and enough money to live on)

The second problem with adapting this book is that, as written, we largely get to see the world through Emma’s eyes. The actual form of the narrative complicates the task of adaptation since, although it’s nominally in the third person as told by an omniscient author, the readers are left with many incidents involving Emma as an unreliable narrator. So the readers can either feel some degree of sympathy for her as she blights her own life and that of Harriet Smith (Louise Dylan), or they can detach themselves and make a more objective judgement of her vain and stubborn self-deceptions. Yet, once you have the camera as an objective third party observer, you can see more clearly what’s happening. This makes it more difficult to have any sympathy for her. She comes over as selfishly manipulative and rather unattractively domineering. This is reinforced by the performance given by Romola Garai. She appears somewhat cold, making it more than obvious why Mr Knightly would be so annoyed by the rejection of poor farmer Martin’s proposal of marriage.

Rupert Evans deceiving everyone as to his amorous imtentions

Now we have the two key developments in Emma’s misjudgment of Mr Elton (Blake Ritson), the amorously smarmy vicar, and her willing acceptance of Frank Churchill (Rupert Evans), the prodigal son. She’s suitably shocked by Elton’s proposal and deeply embarrassed when she must confess to poor Harriet. Of course, the girl is devastated, but humble enough to take most of the blame for allowing herself to think someone of higher status could ever fall for her. His month-long conquest of a replacement adds to her despair. The arrival of Jane Fairfax (Laura Pyper) allows us to see more clearly how awful loneliness has made her aunt, Miss Bates (Tamsin Greig), a rather sad bore. We are hitting the right notes, but there’s a certain lack of coherence. It’s as if the director couldn’t quite decide whether to present Emma sympathetically. So, for example, when Mr Knightley watches Jane Fairfax play and sing at the Cole’s party, there’s ambiguity. If we watch objectively, he may show romantic interest. If we watch from Emma’s point of view, she would never think him interested in Jane.

Box Hill Incident with Tamsin Greig holding forth

We now come into the finishing straights as the awful Mrs Elton (Christina Cole) arrives on the social scene and tries to take over, while Frank Churchill flirts with Emma and rescues Harriet from the gypsies. Poor Harriet. Her heart is all a-flutter again, giving Emma yet another opportunity to misunderstand. Mr Knightly is now physically appearing more his age (or perhaps I’m just beginning to see him as older) and continues to warn Emma about the relationship between Frank and Jane. Emma, of course, cannot see it. The feel of the adaptation is improving. The final episode pulls the fat out of the fire. This takes its time with the strawberry picking at Donwell Abbey, the trip to Box Hill, and the consternation of Highbury when Frank Churchill’s engagement to Jane Fairfax is revealed. The humiliation of Miss Bates is nicely handled as is Mr Knightley’s condemnation. It’s also good to see Michael Gambon playing Mr Woodhouse as slightly more normal, still grieving for his wife. Too often he’s played as a silly old hypochondriac.

On balance, we have one of the better Austen adaptations once we get past the first episode. In this instance, the BBC has not completely wasted our licence money (although asking ITV to rerun the 1996 version starring Kate Beckinsale would probably have been as popular). Indeed, the BBC’s efforts were recognised on an international stage when Emma won an Emmy for Best Hairstyling. This strikes me as a good basis on which to value this production’s contribution to art. The costumes are a feast to the eyes, the locations dazzle and the music is sumptuously apposite. But Romola Garai’s hair is world class. So there you have it. Emma (2009) is a difficult book to adapt and, as adaptations go, this effort by Sandy Welch gets the job done. We can cavil at Romola Garai’s portrayal of the heroine and wish the character came over as more sympathetic but, given our more modern sensibilities, perhaps she doesn’t deserve to be seen as sympathetic. Perhaps, until the bubble of her world bursts, we should always see her as smug, selfish, manipulative and somewhat cold.