Emma Watson steps forward in "Ballet Shoes"

Before Christmas, I blogged about the upcoming BBC adaptation of Noel Streatfeild’s classic novel Ballet Shoes. Aired in the U.K. on December 26, it starred Emma Watson in her first non–Harry Potter role, as adopted orphan and budding film star Pauline Fossil. Pauline has two equally — although differently — talented adopted sisters, Petrova and Posy.

One of the reasons I was interested in the adaptation was to see how it would treat the characters of Dr. Smith and Dr. Jakes, female academics (played by Sense and Sensibility costars Harriet Walter and Gemma Jones) who had always seemed rather like life partners to me in the book. Here’s the illustration of them from my copy of Ballet Shoes:

As it turned out, nothing was overtly stated in the film about the doctors’ relationship. But they did turn up at Pauline and her family’s house looking for rooms together — and for anyone with any gaydar whatsoever, Dr. Smith’s short, slicked-back hair, occasional monocle, and fondness for scarves arranged like ties should have been ringing a few bells. Unfortunately, the best picture I could find of her, below left, is rather blurry:

But if you watch this trailer, she and Dr. Jakes (above right) make an appearance at 00:14:

Aside from that, though, I have to say I found the adaptation a bit disappointing. It looked glossy and glowing, and had a good period atmosphere, but at 90 minutes, all the relationships between the characters just seemed a bit too compressed to get you to really care about them. I found that I kept comparing it to the longer 1975 BBC adaptation, which, although perhaps rather low-budget and stodgy in comparison, just seemed to have captured the atmosphere of the book rather better.

The screenwriter, Heidi Thomas (who was also responsible for the recent Cranford), had invented a love triangle between Garnie, the Fossil girls’ guardian (played by Emilia Fox, above right) and two of her lodgers, Theo Dane (Lucy Cohu of Meadowlands/Cape Wrath) and Mr. Simpson (Marc Warren). Presumably this was intended to help draw in adult viewers. But it had the effect of taking away time from the three Fossil girls, Pauline, Petrova, and Posy, and so there was less time available to build up convincing relationships between them as sisters. Part of the essence of the book, as a family story as well as a story about the theater, therefore seemed to be missing.

In her first non-Harry role, Emma Watson showed some promise as an actress — particularly in a scene where she had to break down in misery after she has lost her first professional acting role due to bad behavior. But she was also a bit jittery and mannered — I thought she might have done better with a director who had encouraged her to relax a bit and just behave naturally. You can view clips of her as Pauline in a fan-made music video here:

There is an interesting recent interview with Watson here, where she discusses Ballet Shoes, as well as her plans to study English and Philosophy at Cambridge.

As Pauline’s younger sisters, Petrova and Posy, I actually thought the actresses Yasmin Paige and Lucy Boynton did rather better. Paige, in particular, came across as warm, relaxed, and likeable, as the tomboy Petrova stuck in drama school but dying to be an aviator:

Boynton, as the ballet-mad Posy, restored some of the cheekiness and the near-arrogance that had been missing from the 1975 adaptation:

The ending of Heidi Thomas’ adaptation was marred by the same thing that marred the ending of her Cranford: an over-enthusiasm for tying up loose ends, often in a very hurried manner. But with its high-profile cast, bright visuals, and '30s jazz soundtrack, the film did have its enjoyable aspects. For U.K. viewers, the DVD is currently available from Amazon.co.uk.