Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on June 27, 1997 at 21:45:38:
I finally saw Emma3 yesterday, and here's some random impressions:
Kate Beckinsale didn't strike me as the "picture of health" and liveliness, playfulness, and imaginativeness that Emma Woodhouse is -- Gwyneth Paltrow in Emma2 was a little over the top in some ways, and there were exaggerated and anachronistic bits in Emma2, but Paltrow fit in better with my (vague) mental picture of Emma Woodhouse somehow, and Emma2 seemed to have more of the spirit of fun of the novel...
Harriet Smith was done better than in Emma2, but Mr, Knightley didn't show us that he was really loveable -- as those of you who had seen Emma3 have already pointed out. Mr. Knightley seemed to just go off the deep end emotionally whenever Emma displeased him even slightly (he said "badly done" to Emma not just after Box Hill, as in the book, but also when arguing with her over Harriet's refusal of Robert Martin). His little tirade about Frank Churchill's good fortune didn't fit in that well as part of the proposal scene.
There were some touches I liked, such as the chicken thieves at the beginning and the end, and the servants who carried the picnic paraphernalia up Box Hill, and Mrs. Elton's taking offense at being commanded by a young unmarried lady at Box Hill...
But I think Jane Fairfax's plain black dress was way off -- I pretty much doubt whether a young woman not in mourning would have worn a plain black dress in the Regency period (though older women did sometimes wear black, even when not in mourning, in the Victorian era).
The Jane Fairfax plot got more time than in Emma2, and Jane F. got to utter her one great line -- "Miss Woodhouse, the comfort of sometimes being alone!" -- but the relationship between Emma and Mrs. Weston was really slighted. Emma2 may have gone a little too far in having Emma reveal her every private thought to Mrs. Weston, but Emma3 understated this way too much. The whole scene where suspicions are raised about Mr. Knightley and Jane Fairfax was truncated and perfunctory, and actually kind of had the opposite point than the same scene in the book did.
Mr. Elton had some touches of Mr. Collins, but I kind of liked that; also, Frank Churchill came through as the jerk he pretty much is.
The harvest supper was kind of cute, but not quite as definitive as an ending as a wedding -- and it meant that Mrs. Elton couldn't get in her line about the shocking deficiencies of veils and white satin! ;-)
It all adds up that while Emma2 may have been more "Hollywood", and may have introduced more broad "screwball" type comedy, it was more engaging and less dull than Emma3, and so perhaps truer to the spirit of the book in some ways...
I give Emma3 my "sideways thumb" rating -- neither thumbs up, nor thumbs down...