This first thing to say about Jane Austen's Emma is that to really have done it justice it should have been over six episodes like the great 1995 Pride and Prejudice! What we have instead is two versions of Emma that came out within a year of each other. The Gwyneth Paltrow (GP) version and the Kate Beckinsale (KB) version. Both are feature film length with the GP version being approximately five minutes longer. So how did it do? Well the important thing about cramming a five hour story into 1 hour fifty is to know what to leave out and what to keep in obviously. There are several aspects of the story that must be brought to the viewers attention. First is that Emma is a match maker and both the GP and KB versions did this. Second is that Emma takes Harriet Smith under her wing and again both versions managed this. Thirdly that Miss Bates is a bit of a chatterbox and both versions managed this and then there is a divergence. An important part of the story is the arrival of Frank Churchill and his seemingly indifference to Jane Fairfax and his caring for Emma. In the KB version this is accurately portrayed with him seemingly reluctant to call on Miss Bates hence Jane Fairfax and his adverse comments about Jane's complexion and his hints that Jane had a thing for Mr Dixon. However in the GP version it was barely touched on and he did not appear to favour Emma over Jane. For instance he sang with both Emma and Jane and at the picnic he sat by Jane and not Emma whereas in the KB version he only sang with Emma and at box hill he sat with Emma. Another telling divergence is that Harriet Smith's liking for Mr Knightly is not properly shown to us in the GP version. In the KB version at the dance we see Harriet quite clearly being blanked by Mr Elton and then Knightly seeing this and making a point of dancing with Harriet and Harriet's happiness that Mr Knightly did dance with her. In the GP version we saw the blanking but it was not made clear that Knightly then danced with Harriet himself. This is important because it reveals why Harriet thinks that Knightly cares for her. I gave the GP version 7 out of ten because of Sophie Thompsons portrayal of Miss Bates. The scene at box hill when she is insulted by Emma was brilliant. I had a tear in my eye when Miss Bates realised she had been insulted by Emma. So while the GP version of Emma was good in my opinion the KB version is superior because it does bring out the points in the story that need to be brought out.
