Emma

Well we went to see Emma on Saturday evening and I confess to being pleasantly surprised.

I could nit pick. They made cuts, but I do appreciate they have to cut some things out to get a film of reasonable length. The house that was supposed to be Donwell Abbey was totally unsuitable. Some of the casting was a bit lacklustre. Some of the comedy was just too broad. 

I am not nit picking, but criticising,  when I say the duet of Drink to me Only should have been dubbed. Someone has told me that Johnny Flynn is a good singer. They seem to know whereof they speak(?) in which case I can only say that he left his good voice at home the day they recorded this duet. It was pitched all wrong for him so he had to strain to reach many of the notes, a lot of the time he was flat and about two thirds of the way through there was a really painful change of register. I winced. 

But, but, but - I really enjoyed it. Flynn was too young and too short and too ugly (imo for the last one) to play Knightley, but he did play him well. I've seen a fair few Emma adaptations in my time but he was the first actor I've seen to  make Knightley's speeches when he proposes sound remotely natural, which was a huge plus. I loved that they made Jane Fairfax quite a sly and obnoxious person. Bill Nighy was a bit too sprightly for Emma's father, which is obviously down to the director rather than the actor, but he was excellent as always and there was some beautifully subtle acting from almost everyone. 

So there you go; expectations confounded. I would even watch it again.