Emma (1996)

All Critics (48) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (8) | DVD (8)

Suddenly you remember how merciless and cutting Austen's satire can be, even in the brutal '90s.

August 19, 2006 Full Review

Hal Hinson

Washington Post

Top Critic

When the going gets tougher the film doesn't have many answers, and the odd unsettling surge of over-emphasis betrays an eye on the American market.

January 26, 2006 Full Review

Trevor Johnston

Time Out

Top Critic

Gwyneth Paltrow makes a resplendent Emma, gliding through the film with an elegance and patrician wit that bring the young Katharine Hepburn to mind.

May 20, 2003 Full Review

Janet Maslin

New York Times

Top Critic

It's not difficult to enjoy the genteel amusements Emma provides even while wishing its virtues were less wholly on the surface.

February 14, 2001 Full Review

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Gwyneth Paltrow sparkles in the title role, as young Miss Woodhouse, who wants to play God in her own little patch of England.

January 1, 2000 Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

Paltrow is smashing.

January 1, 2000

Jeff Millar

Houston Chronicle

Top Critic

Perfect for warmhearted family entertainment.

January 1, 2011 Full Review

Ellen MacKay

Common Sense Media

This Emma is light, airy and modern -- surely Austen's funniest work.

April 9, 2005 Full Review

Laura Clifford

Reeling Reviews

While Sense and Sensibility loves subtlety, silence, and space, and Persuasion loves realism, repression, and understatement, Emma loves its star Gwyneth Paltrow ...

December 6, 2004 Full Review

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

McGrath pokes gentle fun at the over-refinements of privileged gentility, though not without enjoying its trappings and honoring its best aspirations.

May 31, 2004 Full Review

Steven D. Greydanus

Decent Films Guide

A good Jane Austen adaptation that can be watched over and over.

April 24, 2003

Mark Robison

Reno Gazette-Journal

Fun, but pales next to the previous year's Clueless.

April 21, 2003

Jeffrey M. Anderson

San Francisco Examiner

Although it is a very fine film, I found the pace a little slow in places as it wandered off the mark.

March 16, 2003 Full Review

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

Slightly fun, but really boring.

March 15, 2003

Alex Sandell

Juicy Cerebellum

• 1. Mr. Knightley: Vanity working on a weak mind produces every kind of mischief.
  – Submitted by Cathy D (6 months ago)
• 1. Frank Churchill: Is your horse just washing his feet or are there darker forces at work?
  2. Emma Woodhouse: The latter I'm afraid. Something has happened to the wheel and I cannot move.
  3. Frank Churchill: Well you'll just have to live here then. Bye-bye.
  – Submitted by Mary Kathryn P (13 months ago)
• 1. Mr. Knightley: Whom you going to dance with?
  2. Emma Woodhouse: With you if you'll ask me. You've shown yourself to be a fine dancer despite all your protests and it shall not be improper for us to dance. After all we are not brother and sister.
  3. Mr. Knightley: [laughing] Brother and sister?! No, no... No indeed we are not...
  – Submitted by Mary Kathryn P (13 months ago)

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