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Jane Austen's Emma

Jane Austen's Emma

List Price: $19.95
Your Price: $15.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best!
Review: I saw the Paltrow "Emma" and thought it was quite good, but the Kate Beckinsale/Mark Strong version has it beat by a mile. The casting is superb. The sets/direction, just wonderful.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great chick flick
Review: My girfriend love this. A must for any Austen fan, and much better thatn Gwenyth's Emma, I'm told. I find it boring, but I liked Pride and Prejudice.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Heroine Nobody Could Much Like But Austen Herself
Review: That's Jane Austen's own take on her creation, Emma Woodhouse, and indeed whenever one studies this novel in college, that's always brought to the fore, that there's something about Emma that just keeps the reader from identifying with her and liking her. And that's why this novel, alone among Austen's books, poses the most trouble for us readers. Now, that being said up front, it should have come as no surprise to me that after loving the film adaptations of "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice", and "Persusaion", I should not like "Emma" so well. Well, it's even worse than that: I hate it!
The casting of Emma, Mr. Knightley, and Lucy is all wrong! Kate Beckinsale makes a tiresome Emma, the fellow playing Mr. Knightley is always furious, as though he escaped from "Streetcar Named Desire", and Samantha Morton's Lucy--you know, in the book, the whole point of Lucy is that she has only her pretty face going for her. PRETTY face, okay? This insipid looking young woman just won't do at all. The very fact that this actress later got work playing the plain and insignificant Jane Eyre should point up that she's not a beauty.
I will give the production credit, however, for a good Frank Churchill, Mr. Elton, and former parson's spinster daughter--those are all excellent characterizations. But the faults of those other three pivotal characters are just too much to satisfy any real fan of Jane Austen's.
I was greatly disappointed with this video, and wouldn't really recommend it to you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best version out there!
Review: This is the best version of Emma. I love Jane Austen, I have most of her books except for Emma which I could never finish because I couldn't stand Emma!


Well let me tell you this version makes an improvment on the book! You don't hear that too often.


The Paltrow movie is much more superficial and not nearly as satisfying even though I do like all the cast of that version. Ewan MacGregor was wasted in the film I thought!


This version is much better at showing who Emma is and is much more satisfying. The actors are much less exagerated and cartoonish, much more believable.


All in all a satisfying film.


As to the DVD I have had two copies of this film and both seem to have a bizarre glitch where it will speed up for a fraction of a second and it seems odd. I don't think this was a trick of the film. Anyone else have this problem?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Undeserving Emma
Review: This movie is really hard for me to rate. I loved the plot and I liked most of the characters. My main problem with this movie was Emma herself. I didn't like her. She was a snob and very meddlesome, which I guess is the whole point of the story. She was so unlikeable that even after her transformation, I still didn't think she deserved a fairy tale ending. Besides the ending though, I really enjoyed this movie and would recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A much superior adaptation of Emma
Review: This version far surpasses the Gwyneth Paltrow version, both in actors and story. I much prefer Beckinsale to Paltrow, and very much prefer Mark Strong's more attractive, strong Mr. Knightley. Very romantic. The father is delightful as is Emma's tenderness toward him. I love Emma's fantasy scenes about the results of her matchmaking and the minister and his wife are delightfully obnoxious. A more subtle and well-acted Emma in all. Highest recommendations!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: i really love A&G ...
Review: i bought and watched both this and the Paltrow one. The latter has to be considered unbearable compared with this A&G version.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Man's Point of View.
Review: A funny and lively adaptation of the novel. Allot of smiles, accurate verbage from the book in all the proper places, overall outstanding casting(more believable than other attempts) and directing. A stretch at the end but it made us feel good. Excellent overall.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Less than Emma
Review: I am a devout fan of Jane Austen novels and their movie adaptations. This one left me a little cold.

While I felt that some characters were wonderfully portrayed, I was disappointed by the interpretations of the main characters, specifically Emma and Mr. Knightly. Both seemed far too short tempered and snappish than I had imagined them. Mr Knightly seems far from the "perfect gentleman" as he is described in the book, but more like a man with whom one can never find favor. I also disliked the "daydreams" Emma so frequently has in this film.

My personal preference is the more lighthearted but still engaging and, in my opinion, truer 1996 adaptation of "Emma" starring Gwyneth Paltrow. The characters seem, to me, more true to Jane Austen's intentions with the exception of Mr. Elton, who is described as quite handsome.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Emma & Mr. Knightly just didn't seem right in this version..
Review: Although the A&E version does develop the characters more than the Hollywood version with Gwenyth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam I don't think it's better. My main problem with this version is the two main characters, Emma and Mr. Knightly. They don't look "right" together and there doesn't seem to be any chemistry. In fact, they don't even seem to like each other much at all.

I think the Paltrow-Northam version shows much better a relationship between two people who care about each other and then fall in love. This version makes it seem like two bickering psuedo-siblings suddenly decide they love each other. It just never felt right to me.

That said, I think the A&E version is better at portraying every other character. The Hollywood version made the other characters so extreme they were more laughable than realistic.


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