Plot
The film describes a year in the life of Emma Woodhouse (Gwyneth Paltrow), a congenial but naïve young woman who thinks of herself as a romantic matchmaker in her small community in early-19th-century England. When her governess, Miss Taylor (Greta Scacchi), gets married and goes to live with her new husband, Mr Weston (James Cosmo), Emma proudly takes credit for having brought the couple together. Her father and their old family friend George Knightley (Jeremy Northam) dispute her claim and disapprove of her trying to make more matches, but she ignores their warnings and sets her mind on setting up Mr Elton (Alan Cumming), the minister who performed the Westons' marriage ceremony, with Harriet Smith (Toni Collette), an unsophisticated young woman just entering society.
As a close friendship develops between Emma and Harriet, it becomes clear that Harriet is being courted by Robert Martin (Edward Woodall), a farmer who has known Harriet since she was a girl. When Mr Martin proposes to Harriet, she is inclined to accept, but she has come to rely heavily on Emma's advice, and Emma persuades her to reject the proposal. Meanwhile, Mr Elton has been expressing a desire for Emma by taking an interest in a picture she drew of Harriet and by giving her a riddle for a book of riddles being compiled by Harriet. Emma misinterprets this as interest in Harriet, but when Mr Elton and Emma are alone, he fervently declares his love for Emma herself, and she finally realizes her mistake. She rejects his pleas, and he later marries another woman, who turns out to be a vain socialite who competes with Emma for status in the community.
Over the next few months, various gatherings show who loves whom among Emma's friends. Emma is briefly attracted to a charming, gallant young man named Frank Churchill (Ewan McGregor), Mr Weston's son who comes to visit from London, but Emma soon decides to set him up with Harriet. However, Frank is revealed to have a secret engagement with a shy, pretty woman named Jane Fairfax (Polly Walker). Harriet states that she has no interest in Frank, preferring Mr Knightley, who was the only man who would dance with her at a party. Mr Knightley only danced with Harriet out of politeness and has started to fall in love with Emma.
The conclusion of the story begins when Emma ridicules a poor woman named Miss Bates (Sophie Thompson) during a picnic, after which Mr. Knightley angrily scolds Emma and leaves town for a while. She finds herself thinking about him while he's away, but does not realize she loves him until Harriet expresses interest in him. When Mr Knightley returns, he and Emma cross paths in a meadow and have a conversation that begins awkwardly but ends with him asking her to marry him and her gladly accepting. The news of their engagement upsets Harriet, who avoids Emma for a while, but returns a few weeks later, engaged to Mr Martin. The film ends with Emma and Mr Knightley's wedding.
Read more about this topic: Emma (1996 Film)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
““The plot thickens,” he said, as I entered.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)