To think the new Mr knightly has finally toppled Firth's Darcy from his throne?

[heatherpot]

I know it's not really new but this weekend I saw the newest version of Emma and, after years and years of Colin Firth's Mr Darcy being my number one Austen inspired crush he has finally been usurped by Johnny Flynn as Knightly. The dance scene and finding out he was really playing the violin are my new coming out of the lake.

I'm not being unreasonable am I?

Categorically NO.

I’ll say it again. Darcy is Colin Firth. Sex on legs. No argument.

@Mn753

Yabu. Also Jeremy Northam saying 'badly done Emma' 😍😍😍

This. This is one of my all-time best-and-favourite film moments.

🥵😍😍

That Bonham Carter person can fuck right off! That’s my rightful place.

Nothing will ever beat Richard Armitage as Mr Thornton in North & South
Look back at me - swoon

I’ll say it again. Darcy is Colin Firth.

I know - but Johnny Flynn is Knightly - not putting him up for Darcy .

No one will ever ever convince me that Jeremy Northam is attractive in the role and i wish she had told him to fuck off in the 'badly done' scene. JF is better as he's more passionate in his upsetness (sic) at her.

My ds made me laugh last night by putting on a miserable/broody face and saying 'This is Darcy CF upset'... same face 'this is Darcy CF really angry...' same face with lower lip out a bit 'This is Darcy CF hiding inner heartbreak...' Okay, you had to be there, but it did ring true a bit!

The lack of smoldering chemistry (as in the Paltrow-Northam version) is closer to the way the characters come to realize their love in the book, so it works for me.

The new Emma is worth seeing just for the visual feast that it is. I have to admit that there have been few film versions of Austen that I haven't liked.

No one will ever ever convince me that Jeremy Northam is attractive in the role

Well JN's Knightly was fairly good looking, but a bit of an old stick-in-the-mud, but that is what Mr Knightly IS, if you read the book. She realises she's in love with him, and I think it's partly based on friendship and realising what a good person he is. She's seen Frank Churchill as a dashing younger guy, who people expected her to be attracted to, and realised how unreliable he is, and how he's been disloyal to Jane Fairfax, his secret fiancee, and caused her grief. Not someone to rely on.

So I don't think Knightly is supposed to be some wildly romantic figure. There is no indication in the book of folk singing and floppy blond hair!

@Bainne

He’s not stiff enough for me — David Rintoul is the best Darcy I’ve seen. I think CF’sface has something a bit puddingy about it that doesn’t work for me as D.

DR was my first Darcy. He was perfect, but CR did have the advantage of 20 minutes of closeups of his smouldering gaze.

Colin Firth is very unsexy

@Deadringer

Johnny Flynn was lovely as Dobbin in Vanity Fair. But he is no Colin Firth.

I have to find a way to watch this in Canada.

@miffmufferedmoof

I loooooove Jeremy Northam as Mr Knightley - so gentlemanly, charming and utterly gorgeous! Can’t quite choose between him and Firth/Darcy. YES to a PP who said they need to make a new really good Persuasion

Posting for the third time in a row to say that they did make the Perfect Persuasion, with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root.

@AryaStarkWolf

Colin Firth is very unsexy

Yes, I agree. I think he has the type of quite soft, malleable features and facial arrangements that can either make him look handsome or can also make him look terribly self-conscious, ruddy and a bit silly. I could very easily see him cast as a red-faced, red-trousered Ukipper roaring 'You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver' at a local council meeting, and he'd probably be excellent...

I don't find him at all sexy, especially when wet after his uncharacteristic dip in his lake at Pemberley (which is about as unlikely a thing for Austen's character to do as to moon Meryton from his carriage to show off his new buttock tattoos.)

Well JN's Knightly was fairly good looking, but a bit of an old stick-in-the-mud, but that is what Mr Knightly IS, if you read the book.

Yeah, I've read the book but I don't agree that he's utterly devoid of romance/passion/a spark with Emma. I feel it's more that neither have had a cause to do anything about it up until the point when Frank/Jane and Harriet turn up and mix things up a bit. It's like they have taken each other for granted and thought they could go on forever as they were. When they're at the dance there is a bit where she reflects on how well he looks/dances compared to the others, she's livid when Mrs Elton disrespects him and he gets jealous/hurt when she says they need a good looking man in the village so she's glad Frank's coming! These things all happen quite early on.

It is based on friendship but there's a spark too. A film is different from a book and if there's no chemistry and then they suddenly get married it's just odd - hence why the GP/JN version has all the awkward shoe-horned in convos with Mrs Weston at the end with GP saying 'I've always loved him..' otherwise the audience would be a bit about them suddenly getting married.

Also, does the book specify his hair?! He is said to be quite unconventional and unconcerned with status etc so not sure why he needs to be a total stuffed shirt! I suppose sometimes actors don't live up to your own mental image of a character though but I thought this was a lovely new and fresh interpretation.

Jeremy Northam as Mr Knightley is my favourite, and GP as Emma, I think she's hilarious.
Unlike some pp's I really didn't rate Romola Garai as Emma, she's very pretty but just a little drab IMO. Though she's very good in the big screen Vanity Fair.

Yeah, you have a point, there has to be some sort of spark between them I expect. And there wasn't much of that apparent with Gwyneth P and Jeremy N, it's true.

I suppose it's just that Johnny F seems so youthful and unconventional, that he doesn't fit my mental image of Mr Knightly.

@heatherpot I am completely with you about Johnny Flynn. He is really attractive as Mr Knightley. Maybe still photos don't do him justice. He is definitely sexy. I love the new Emma and the more times I watch it the more I love it. The costumes are beautiful and as for that dance scene.

In the interests of science...

And purely for fun

Would it be extremely rude to interject with a Mr. Rochester diversion?

Cieran Hinds for me, no shadow of a doubt. So perfectly childish and spoiled.

Maybe cravats will be the new post lockdown style?

Yes those cravats are pretty hot🔥

I'm sorry but the Duke in Bridgerton just tops them all....

@Tehmina23

I'm sorry but the Duke in Bridgerton just tops them all....

This