THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 19, 1996 TAG: 9608170065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 66 lines
RAISING JANE is a good deal more fun than raising Cain - and here's the latest of the movie adaptations of Jane Austen novels to prove it. In a summer movie season more concerned with explosions and expletives than elegance, ``Emma'' is doubly welcome.
Literate talk is a good deal more difficult to find these days than even a good cup of tea. So those who'd like a bit of not-too-starchy refinement had better turn out for this one, or not complain when ``Beavis and Butthead'' moves into theaters in the weeks ahead.
Perhaps the most lasting effect of ``Emma'' will be that it cements the stardom of Gwyneth Paltrow, the willowy, intelligent young actress who has been on the edge of major celebrity for the past year. Here, she's likely to get an Oscar nomination all her own.
Emma is the most flawed and mischievous of Austen's heroines - an obsessed matchmaker who imagines she knows all about love, but makes numerous mistakes. Meanwhile, she has no sense of how to manipulate romance for herself. Emma takes one look at plain Harriet Smith (Toni Collette) and immediately decides to match her with the local vicar, the Rev. Elton (Alan Cumming). Harriet would have been perfectly satisfied with a sturdy local farmer and the vicar prefers Emma herself, but Emma must meddle.
When the vicar marries a delightfully abrasive woman (played with scene-stealing gusto by Juliet Stevenson), Emma decides to match Harriet with handsome Frank Churchill (played by new star Ewan McGregor, who has cleaned himself up considerably from his leading role in ``Trainspotting,'' also opening this week). Another player in this merry-go-round of hearts aflutter is gorgeous Polly Walker.
Paltrow (who scored in ``Seven,'' ``The Pallbearer'' and the almost-forgotten ``Flesh and Bone'') hits her British accent perfectly - to the degree that we don't even notice it. Beyond that, she suggests the changes in Emma, from a know-it-all, conniving girl to a woman who realizes her possible limitations. The matchmaking plot is a little like ``Hello, Dolly'' without the music. But it's even more like the teen comedy ``Clueless,'' which was based on Austen's book.
The film is afflicted with several miscastings and many regrettable cuts. Jeremy Northam is too young to play the stern Mr. Knightley and McGregor is too vulgar for Frank Churchill.
After all, the director-writer is no Oxford type. He is Doug McGrath, a native Texan who wrote many of NBC-TV's ``Saturday Night Live'' sketches and co-wrote Woody Allen's ``Bullets Over Broadway.'' He sometimes goes for broad gags. But, given what he might have done, this is a likable entertainment that will not irritate the Austen purists too much.
Set in 1816, ``Emma'' is not the best Austen adaptation. It is not as stylish as ``Sense and Sensibility,'' nor as literate as ``Persuasion,'' but it is a good deal more fun than either. MEMO: MOVIE REVIEW
``Emma''
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, Toni Collette, Greta Schacchi,
Juliet Stevenson, Ewan McGregor
Director and writer: Douglas McGrath, based on the novel by Jane
Austen
MPAA rating: PG (sophisticated humor, not for children but not
objectionable)
Mal's rating: three and a half stars
Location: Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake ILLUSTRATION: MIRAMAX photo
Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Emma and Jeremy Northam is Mr. Knightley in
Douglas McGrath's ``Emma.'' by CNB