Emma (2020) | Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers for Emma (2020), which was first a book published in 1815

Whenever I hear one of my favorite books are about to adapted to film, I cringe internally. Some adaptations excel all expectations, like The Princess Bride, others break my heart more than my love life, like every adaptation of King Solomon’s Mines ever made. When I first heard Jane Austen’s classic novel, Emma, was receiving a new adaptation, I was skeptical.

I took my ticket with a mixture of excitement and terror. This was the first film adaptation of any of Jane Austen’s works I had seen. Growing up, my mother raised me with the understanding the only acceptable forms of Jane Austen came from the novels, or from BBC.

After fighting my way through a tourist bus of teenagers besieging my local theater (true story), I took my seat and waited to see the results. My presence raised the number of Y chromosomes in the room to a total of five, and I was most definitely the only man there who hadn’t been dragged by their significant other.

Though I cannot give the female perspective on the film, I hope my male informed viewpoint will be considered novel at least. As a man of literature and learning, I have been in love with Ms. Austen’s writing for much of my adult life. Her male protagonists have informed my views of what being a gentleman means just as much as her heroines have informed my views of clever women.