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Surrendering to fatigue, I decided to watch the latest attempt at Emma. Because after The Dead Don't Die, any way looked like up.
Best Emma adaptions: The TV one with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller, also Clueless.
Worst; everything else, including this.
Admittedly there's Bill Nighy being adorable, there are lovely flowers and gorgeous houses. There are cheeky buttock moments for both Emma and Mr Knightley, the latter clearly having his fwoar score upped to rival the legendary hotness of Mr Darcy. There are good performances from Miranda Hart and Mia Goth, but other major plot arcs and characters are buried. There's about a seconds worth of excellence from Josh O'Connor, one moment's expression to show that the charming Mr Elton is not just oily and ridiculous but nasty, good work from the actor. But the tacked on visit to the Martins farm at the end is just trying to make Emma nice in a very 21st century way, and it makes me groan.
Admittedly I'm a bit of a curmudgeon right now, and perhaps precious about Austen. I will say this version is immensely pretty. There, that's it. Oh, and Highbury carriage drivers are terrifying; they set off with lurches so vehement I'm surprised Emma wasn't constantly catapulted through the front, past the driver and over the horses' heads straight into nearby fields.
I don't think the film would have suffered for it.
***
However I may complain about The Dead Don't Die and Emma, these are nothing, nothing, to compare to whatever the hell Branagh was up to with his version of Frankenstein. Helena Bonham Carter is Bellatrix LeStrange whatever she plays; I would have felt safer with the Monster.
I lasted less than 10 minutes with it, and my movie-fu is generally strong.
***
Meanwhile the press is trying to get us all worked up about No Deal Brexit and the Withdrawal Agreement, and in a moment of unashamed schadenfreude I am grimly amused by the glorious whirrings and gyrations of our PM and his sycophants.
Prior to the last election there was this boast of an 'oven-ready deal' with the EU. What did it mean? Nothing, it was another three word slogan like 'Take back control,' and 'get Brexit done,' with added connotations of ease and convenience. The great thing about words that mean nothing is that it's easy to claim they mean anything. Now we are being told that the 'oven ready deal' did not refer to an actual free trade deal, oh no, how could it when no deal had been agreed? (Boris Johnson quote at the time: '“We’ve got a deal, oven ready. It’s a great deal for the country. It delivers everything that I wanted when I campaigned for Brexit’) But no, suddenly reality is retrofitted and the oven-ready deal refers and always has referred to the the Withdrawal Agreement, the same Withdrawal Agreement that was so important Johnson fired MPs from his party for refusing to vote for it, and which now, it transpires, is not fit for purpose. No, now it needs to be corrected by the Internal Market Bill which currently holds potential to break international law and jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement. Johnson cannot afford to antagonise the US and the EU, but he will do both if this goes through unchanged, plus he has to play British Bulldog with the fanatics in his party.
Personally, I think he has lost his nutters already; the proper loons are looking for a Gove shoe-in, the slightly less unhinged for a Sunak rescue. He might as well get on with it and amend the clauses into oblivion. But how to do this and still look like a winner to the foaming-jawed fans of Brexit? I am expecting some colossal crashing BS in the next day or so. Emma will seem like sober realpolitik in comparison and the Monster as PM would be a fair exchange if we could leave Boris in the arctic to wrestle with polar bears/ make sweet bedroom music with lady orcas. Better, much better.
Best Emma adaptions: The TV one with Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller, also Clueless.
Worst; everything else, including this.
Admittedly there's Bill Nighy being adorable, there are lovely flowers and gorgeous houses. There are cheeky buttock moments for both Emma and Mr Knightley, the latter clearly having his fwoar score upped to rival the legendary hotness of Mr Darcy. There are good performances from Miranda Hart and Mia Goth, but other major plot arcs and characters are buried. There's about a seconds worth of excellence from Josh O'Connor, one moment's expression to show that the charming Mr Elton is not just oily and ridiculous but nasty, good work from the actor. But the tacked on visit to the Martins farm at the end is just trying to make Emma nice in a very 21st century way, and it makes me groan.
Admittedly I'm a bit of a curmudgeon right now, and perhaps precious about Austen. I will say this version is immensely pretty. There, that's it. Oh, and Highbury carriage drivers are terrifying; they set off with lurches so vehement I'm surprised Emma wasn't constantly catapulted through the front, past the driver and over the horses' heads straight into nearby fields.
I don't think the film would have suffered for it.
***
However I may complain about The Dead Don't Die and Emma, these are nothing, nothing, to compare to whatever the hell Branagh was up to with his version of Frankenstein. Helena Bonham Carter is Bellatrix LeStrange whatever she plays; I would have felt safer with the Monster.
I lasted less than 10 minutes with it, and my movie-fu is generally strong.
***
Meanwhile the press is trying to get us all worked up about No Deal Brexit and the Withdrawal Agreement, and in a moment of unashamed schadenfreude I am grimly amused by the glorious whirrings and gyrations of our PM and his sycophants.
Prior to the last election there was this boast of an 'oven-ready deal' with the EU. What did it mean? Nothing, it was another three word slogan like 'Take back control,' and 'get Brexit done,' with added connotations of ease and convenience. The great thing about words that mean nothing is that it's easy to claim they mean anything. Now we are being told that the 'oven ready deal' did not refer to an actual free trade deal, oh no, how could it when no deal had been agreed? (Boris Johnson quote at the time: '“We’ve got a deal, oven ready. It’s a great deal for the country. It delivers everything that I wanted when I campaigned for Brexit’) But no, suddenly reality is retrofitted and the oven-ready deal refers and always has referred to the the Withdrawal Agreement, the same Withdrawal Agreement that was so important Johnson fired MPs from his party for refusing to vote for it, and which now, it transpires, is not fit for purpose. No, now it needs to be corrected by the Internal Market Bill which currently holds potential to break international law and jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement. Johnson cannot afford to antagonise the US and the EU, but he will do both if this goes through unchanged, plus he has to play British Bulldog with the fanatics in his party.
Personally, I think he has lost his nutters already; the proper loons are looking for a Gove shoe-in, the slightly less unhinged for a Sunak rescue. He might as well get on with it and amend the clauses into oblivion. But how to do this and still look like a winner to the foaming-jawed fans of Brexit? I am expecting some colossal crashing BS in the next day or so. Emma will seem like sober realpolitik in comparison and the Monster as PM would be a fair exchange if we could leave Boris in the arctic to wrestle with polar bears/ make sweet bedroom music with lady orcas. Better, much better.
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