The director did a good job showing Emma's point of view
At first I thought the director, Douglas McGrath, was being unfair and playing loose with the audience by depicting Mr.Elton seeming to be much more interested in Harriet Smith than he actually was. Then I "got it" when Mr.Knightly was shown similarly being attentive to Harriet, but only AFTER Harriet revealed her heretofore unspoken love interest to Emma.
The director was showing everything through Emma's eyes and not from a detached, all-knowing point of view, thus mimicking Jane Austen's own innovation of free indirect discourse, one of her most important contributions to the development of the novel. Nicely done!