Classics Revisited: The Best 'Emma' Is One That Allows Its Heroine to Be Awful
As part of our "Classics Revisited" series, we're looking back at some of our favorite series and movies from years ago. Next up: The 2009 BBC adaptation of Emma starring Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller, a take on Jane Austen's classic that isn't afraid to let its titular heroine be messy and awful as she is adorable and fun.
Emma is a fairly frequently adapted Austen story --- there are eight currently, counting both contemporary and modern versions, the most recent of which arrived in 2020. But most of these adaptations are feature films, which necessarily have to cut and massage some of the original source material to fit their stories into a standard theatrical run-time. The beauty of this BBC version is that its longer TV format really does feel like a revelation, allowing so much more of the novel's nuance to make its way to the screen.
The added length also allows this Emma to highlight how deliberately paced and plotted everything else. Almost nothing about it feels wasted or extraneous. One of the best things about it is how everything ultimately connects and returns to the story's more significant point: The true education and subsequent emotional growth of one Miss Emma Woodhouse.
