Emma Blu-ray Review

• 19th Sep 2011

Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Alan Cumming and Ewan McGregor head up this Jane Austin adaptation directed by Douglas McGrath.

Paltrow joins a legion of American actresses determined to deliver one of those upper class English accents we have become so familiar with.  Here she plays Emma Woodhouse, a well loved and wealthy – yet bored – well to do young socialite who sets about playing match-maker. And well… you know, falls in love in the process.

The direction looks a smidge dated now, but the film is fully honest in its intentions and is full of some of the best performances you can expect from familiar faces all popular in the field of classic literary adaptations, Jeremy Northam is particularly good.

Rachel Portman (no stranger to the period drama) delivers a very sweet music accompaniment to the film. In fact it also made her the first female recipient of an original musical score at the Academy Awards.

The bad news is that the print is quite a dirty one with flecks of dirt consistently speckling the screen as the film progresses. Miramax may be releases many of their awards heavy pictures this week, but they have put very little into cleaning the films up. And Emma also suffers in the extras department!  This release only comes with the theatrical trailer.

Steven Hurst