Clueless (1995)

Film review: Clueless (1995), directed by Amy Heckerling

Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) lives with her father (Dan Hedaya) in Beverly Hills. She has an older step-brother, called Josh (Paul Rudd), that she keeps bickering with. She has a best friend, Dionne (Stacey Dash), whose goofy boyfriend is played by Donald Faison, a.k.a. Turk in Scrubs. She's interested in fashion and goes to school, where she has the brilliant idea of setting up two of her teachers (Twink Caplan and Wallace Shawn, the latter having the catchphrase "Inconcievable!" in The Princess Bride). Cher is a bit of a matchmaker.

A new girl, Tai (Brittany Murphy), comes to town and Cher instantly takes her under her wing. After all, she looks like a bit of a loser - surely the magnificent Cher can improve her? That her new project seems interested in a slacker (Breckin Meyer) as opposed to the omre upstanding Elton (Jeremy Sisto, the creepy Billy in Six Feet Under) is a problem that needs solving.

For anyone familiar with Jane Austen's Emma, you know the rest. Cher = Emma, Josh = Mr. Knightley, Tai = Harriet.

Emma 2009 #4

The miniseries concluded in much the same way as it had been going on before, i.e. in a "blah" sort of way. Really. Somehow it's just unconvincing, and I don't just mean the "omg it's the hottest day ever, but we don't seem too bothered by it more than that we keep on complaining about how hot it is"... it's the general feel of it. All of a sudden, Knightley and Emma discover they're actually in love. Just like that. I'm just not really convinced that they are!

I really wanted to love this adaptation, but it seems to have fallen short, somehow. The actors were great and so were the clothes and the houses but it just felt a bit, I dunno, fake? I haven't read the book yet, like I've already said, and sure it has elements that I recognise from the Beckinsale and Palthrow versions, but I'm just not enamoured of the story. I should be. It's Austen and an age gap romance, so I should be swooning - and yet, I'm not.

Emma 2009 #3

Yeah, pretty much same as previous episode, really. The story moves along and it's not terribly interesting. Highlights of episode three: Christina Cole as the intolerable snob Mrs. Elton. She's got that 19th Century upper class bitch down to a tee, but then again, she has been typecast had training. Quite amusing to hear her going on about how knowledgable and fabulous she is. Yeah right. Just waiting for someone to shout "STFU!" which Knightley did, in a way, when he said the only woman he'd trust his invites to was Mrs. Knightley, and as there is none as of yet, he'll take care of that himself. Gotta love him for that!

Speaking of which: Mr. Knightley feels too informal, somehow - why was he sitting down so casually on a blanket in the garden? While the women were on a bench? And not even a picnic going on or anything... it was rather peculiar. Aside from that, I am taking a bit of a shine to him. How could you not? He's lovely! He's a very kind man and while he does have a gloomy-looking house, he is a rather agreeable fellow indeed.

(Oh gosh, can you tell I've just watched a costume drama? Add to that, I finished a Mills & Boon Historical book set in Regency times yesterday. I'll have to write a few lines about that when I get my internets back - it's being cut tomorrow, which is also when we're moving out. Won't be getting the connection back until early November, it seems. ANGST!!!)

I'm not endeared to Emma yet, but I'm not sure I ever will be, to be honest. She's just not a very likable character. Her dad is beginning to sound a bit whiny too.

The fourth and final (I think?) installment is next Sunday. There will be strawberries, "badly done, Emma!" and a romantic conclusion. Looking forward to that.

Emma 2009 #2

In part two, we encounter Jane Fairfax, but other than that, things are pretty much same ol' same ol'. Mr. Woodhouse is hypocondriac, although this time it was starting to annoy me a little; Mr. Knightley doesn't feel quite right, Emma is an obnoxious brat, Mr. Elton confesses his love for Emma and not at all Miss Smith, which is so obvious that Emma comes across as somewhat daft. I thought that was Harriet's job. :P

Oh yes, and again, they have tell and not show us the age difference between Knightley and Emma, i.e. having them specifically point out in dialogue that he's way older than her. We're still not going to believe that completely. Jonny Lee Miller might be handsome in a cravat, but he does look a lot younger than his 37 years, and for that matter, Romola Garai is three weeks younger than me, and last time I looked, I was 27. So no, it doesn't quite work. Give me Strong or even Northam any day! (While I prefer looking at Northam, I liked Strong's Knightley better.)

I don't know, it just didn't grab my attention very much. Fair enough, I was on the laptop at the same time, so maybe I just need to watch it again without any distractions. Still, it seemed to just work it's paces, nothing new, nothing exciting... and oh yes, "it's oh so very cold and it looks like snow" ...what, you mean with those very pretty and very summery GREEN TREES and GREEN SHRUBS in the background? Snow? Really? Really? Sure, there have been some freak incidents of snow in June in Sweden, but umm... if they're trying to portray winter, and specifically the time around Christmas... I'm not a native to this country, but I've been here long enough to know that both trees and shrubs have lost their leaves by then, evergreens like holly excluded.

It's sliding down the credibility scale, and that's not good at all. I'm a bit disappointed, to tell the truth, especially since this is supposed to be the last BBC costume drama for quite a while. I would rather dig out one of my other Emma adaptation DVDs, but they're packed up in a box ready for when we move next week, so that'll have to wait. Bleagh.

Emma 2009 #1

First part went out on the Beeb Sunday night. Again, I feel slightly disadvantaged for not having read the book (yet) - although with regards to Wuthering Heights, I have actually started reading it now! The beginning of the first episode said how Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill lived in Highbury as children, but were sent away for various reasons. My reaction to this was "is this in the book or did they make that up?" and that bugs me. I'm just pretty sure it wasn't in either of the Beckinsale/Paltrow versions.

I would say that yes, it does feel quite modern. While Jane Eyre (2006) can also be accused of being a bit too modern, it doesn't feel modern in the same way. Hard to pin-point exactly what gives this impression, but it's there nonetheles.

Dumbledore Michael Gambon as the hypocondriac Mr. Woodhouse was my favourite character. He made me giggle. "Cake is bad for you!" Gambon seems to be a rather quirky character in himself, so he's very convincing. Another quirky character is Miss Bates, played babblingly brilliant by Tamsin Grieg. So is this a comedy? Well, not as such, although Emma is a lot more light-hearted than other Austen works.

Emma on Sunday

Last Sunday, saw the trailer for Emma on BBC. It's airing this Sunday at 9pm / 21:00 on BBC One. Starring Angel/Mary Bryant, Eli Stone, Dumbledore, Fran from Black Books and David from Cold Feet. :D

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n7pk1

Emma in October

"BBC has already announced that they're cutting back on costume drama and this will be the last 19th century project for a long time" someone wrote on the IMDb boards, and I think that's a great shame. We all love a good costume drama! But at least we have this one, the upcoming adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma to keep us keen!

The script has been done by the great Sandy Welch. Don't know who she is? She wrote the scripts for North &; South (BBC 2004) and Jane Eyre (2006)... and they were absolutely marvellous, so I've high hopes for this one as well. Sandy Welch is like the new Andrew Davies. :)