England in the 1800s Emma is a selfish young woman and sees it has her duty to meddle in the love lives of her friends and quite frankly everyone else around her!
⭐️⭐️
Emma Woodhouse is pretty much the queen of her small town and therefore thinks she is so much better than every single person around her. In the worst possible manner and way, this made the film very unbearable for me at times as I just did not like her character at all. It even went to border on hating her because she was quite frankly awful and horrible to those who were only ever kind to her!
This pretty much made me feel extremely annoyed and I therefore found it very difficult to watch at times. Considering I had heard pretty good things about the film I just did not find it enjoyable because the title character was just so horrible. Harriet Smith thought the world of Emma and really loved their friendship but when she turns out Mr Martin's proposal of marriage despite actually being in love with him all because of her supposed best friend I knew from that point this was going to be a tough one to take.
Miss Bates was always over the top towards not only Emma but everything so enthusiastic but she meant well and was genuinely a nice person. The scene when Emma absolutely destroys this poor woman was so tough to watch as we all knew she meant well and was just lovely in general. So by that point I was already long gone and therefore my wanting to watch the finale of the film I really was not bothered. I actually did not want to see Emma get exactly what she wanted after the hurt and trauma she had caused, she did not deserve it at all.
The two possible male suitors for Emma were both incredibly dull and boring which I guess is the factor of trying not to make anything in the film being about them.
The main reason I have therefore given the film two stars instead of just one is because the supporting cast are at least very good and impressive. Of course I would have preferred a bigger role for Bill Nighy considering my fandom and love for him, but his reactions were amusing enough in the different scenes. Gemma Whelan was good as well, although again underused in my personal opinion. It was also a shame not to see Connor Swindells have more lines, after watching him in both seasons of Sex Education so that was a shame. Miranda Hart was a little bit of a scene stealer and pretty much brought any of the amusing moments. I thought Mia Goth was probably the stand out performance though as it was all so innocent. I am finding it hard to judge how I found Anya Taylor-Joy's performance considering my dislike for her character? Maybe that has to be concerned very good acting then? I just really am not sure at all.
Therefore I am left wondering just how and why the good reviews have been coming in for this film, I wasn't actually planning on going to see it to be brutally honest but the good things surrounding it made me change my mind. Obviously the Bill Nighy factor as well was a defining factor.