upon discovering that bridget jones’s diary was loosely based on jane austen’s pride and prejudice, i have been a big fan of jane austen’s works. i really enjoy the film adaptations of her novels such as sense and sensibility and now emma.

there really isn’t much in this film that you haven’t seen in other romantic comedies, except for perhaps the really laugh-out-loud moments which may or may not have existed in victorian england. and if you’ve seen amy heckerling’s clueless starring the adorable alicia silverstone, you’ll probably notice more than a few striking parallels.

gwenyth paltrow did a fairly good job portraying the idealistic emma, though there really isn’t too much to her character. alan cumming makes an appearance as mr. elton (ring a bell?) and that rather mannish mom from bend it like beckham also shows her face. you may even notice ewan mcgregor as a mop-haired hippy, though i’m sure they didn’t exist in that era.

however, i seemed to be paying more attention to the delightfully european actors than to the actual storyline, which is more or less a carbon copy of jane austen’s formula where two lovers don’t know they love each other, realize they do, struggle over it because of silly misunderstandings, finally profess their love to one another, and then get married.