Which Emma adaptation was the best?

I have watched the three Emma adaptations that I mentioned in a previous post:

Emma tv movie from 1996 with Kate Beckinsale

Emma (also from) 1996 with Gwyneth Paltrow

Emma (2009) miniseries with Romola Garai

Well, to be be short and sweet (the way I am ;D) I thought the 2009 Emma mini series with Romola Garai was clearly the best. First of all it's in 4 parts, each episode an hour long, so we get the chance to explore the complicated relationships and personality traits of every character, this is what it's all about for me.

I really just thought the tv/movie versions from 1996 were too shortened, it didn't capture the essence of Emma, wich the 2009 series succeeded with. 

The Emmas:

Kate Beckinsale was just a sourpuss. She didn't convey the lightness and charm that Jane Austens beloved character has. And it is Emmas charm that makes us like her, otherwise she would just be a snob and not likeable at all. I expected more from Kate who is actually one of my favorite actresses normally. 

Gwyneth Paltrow was a better Emma than Kate. BUT it wasn't quite enough. I don't know wether to blame the time constraint of only 1h50min, thereby shortening the whole story to the extreme, or to blame Gwyneth? In all fairness, she was a perfectly good Emma, but having seen the 2009 version first, I can't be other than critical. Quite a bit more charm than Kate, but not quite enough for me.

Romola Garai IS Emma! She was absolutely brilliant! She completely conveyed the charm, the actual innocence and youthful vanity of Emma, and also this sence of superiority, without it being obnoxious in any way. Her complete ability to just banter with Mr Knightly (Jonny Lee Miller) while doing her daily chores was so perfect and even though she is quite a shallow character in the beginning, one never really dislikes her. With Romola, we get it, we get Emma and we get Emma right. 

But what about the men? 

Well, this is always a hard question, Mr Knightley is a very important character. He is Emmas friend, her confidante, he teases her and tells her off when he thinks she's behaved badly. He makes her see her own weaknesses, but he never thinks of them as weaknesses himself.

Mark Strong is a good actor. That being said, I don't think he physically looks the part. He looks a little too old for her and he didn't have any chemistry at all with Kate. It was just a bad match I guess.

Jeremy Northam looks a little more like I pictured Mr Knightey. But I'm missing the passionate arguments between him and Gwyneth (Emma). He was okay, but not ultimate. Needless to say this is the sweetest looking couple of all the Emma adaptation, they totally look like a couple. 

Jonny Lee Miller was amazing. Granted, he wasn't exactly how I imagined Mr Knightey, a bit short compared to Emma (Romola) and a little too "bright" and cheerful. I imagine Mr Knightley when I read the book as a much darker man, and not nearly so sheepish. BUT, with his ability to scold his counterpart like there's no tomorrow he wins you over in the end. I suspect that the warmth he added to the character also makes one more likey to like him and see him as someone you would want to cozy up to one day for the rest of your life... 

But if I got to choose. If I would cast anyone as Mr Knightley, I most definitely would cast:

Richard Armitage

 (played Mr Thornton on North and South, absolutely gorgeous)

American Pie and Long Pigs

I decided to have a little evening with Vik Sahay, and so I watched American Pie Reunion

To not spoil anything I thought the movie was okay, but it's not exactly my type of humor anymore. And it definitely seems the boys haven't learned anything since high-school. That being said, there are some typical "embarrassing-suspense" moments and a few real laugh out loud moments as well.
In some strange way, I can kind of relate to it. I was in high school (or younger?) when the first American Pie came out of the oven so to speak. (Yes, I have dry humor now! Guess I'm growing up?) And now it's some ten years later and things are changing, but a part of me can still remember what it was like to be a teenager, and the times my friends and I shared. In a way, we're all the same, only we share other times now.

Vik plays Stiflers boss and gives him a hard time at work, because he was (supposedly) a nerd in the past and now he has the chance for payback on a former cool kid. He has this skanky, way too tall blonde chick hanging around him. I think we could've done without her.
(Lol, that's just me being jealous, but seriously, I'd rather see him with someone classier, but I guess that wouldn't fit the movie. I'm thinking too much about Vik and not enough about the character, haha).

Second movie I watched was Long Pigs

It's this Canadian movie from 2007, filmed documentary-style. It's about two guys making a documentary about a cannibal. So they follow this cannibal around, filming him stalking his prey, killing, butchering, cooking and eating other human beings. And they film his social life, his friends and family, trying to figure him out.

Vik plays the cannibal's mother's doctor, who is hospitalized. He really just appears in two scenes, but it's magic every time I see him. The movie itself is really disturbing, I was kind of waiting for the end to "happen" because I saw it coming, so it was suspenseful in the end. But it was a good movie, the documentary-style filming just makes it feel that much better, because it becomes real and I felt seriously queezy at times. And I've watched gory japanese movies without feeling anything, but this really got to me.
So, if you're into that, go for it!

Here's an interesting factoid:

Vik-pic time:
I just had to share this one because I think his eyes just come out so beautifully here:

(and to think this is how he looks before makeup!)

I totally want to marry someone this gorgeous...