MovieChat Forums > Emma (1996) Discussion > Which Emma is the ultimate

Which Emma is the ultimate

posted 10 years ago by Zen-2-Zen
3 replies | jump to latest

It's a fair question seeing that there's a number or renditions. I'm not even sure if we are supposed to like of hate Emma. I liked Paltrow's Emma as a person/character much more than Beckinsale's Emma but she came out empty in core scenes and the whole movie seemed way more trivializing than Beckinsale's and I also considered Beckinsale's Harriet Smith to be much better done then Paltrow's Harriet so if we are supposed to hate Emma then Beckinsale's version would stand much higher and if we are supposed to like her then Paltrow's version would have to stand higher despite it's many faults.

What of course raises a wider question - is there a rendition that's considered to be the ultimate Emma ?

[–] supergran 10 years ago

My favourite is the 2009 version with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller.

I'll leave it to others to debate which version is the most faithful to the book and accurately portrays it's characters, but it's the adaptation that most spoke to me.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain.

[–] Flippitygibbit 10 years ago

Seconded. Card-carrying Janeites would probably say that the 1972 BBC adaptation is closest to the novel, which it is - but not very (re)watchable!

"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy

[–] Tomatish 10 years ago

hmm... I have not seen much of the 1972 adaptation, but I remember that in the first episode, several scenes from the novel were clumped together into a single event... a dinner party or something like that. They probably did it because of limited budget, but it hardly makes for a faithful adaptation.