Between the novel, Emma and the film, Clueless; in my opinion I enjoyed the movie more than the novel and film of Emma. My reasoning behind this is because I think Clueless was more humorous and in providing 'greater equivalence of meaning.' The movie itself doesn't not mainly focus on marriage in the end between Cher and Josh except the fact that became a couple instead of man and wife. 
I saw that as a better and more realistic ending because for one Cher was very young, still in high school and two did not know Josh on a deeper romantic level (she was still a virgin for Christ sakes!) Throughout the movie, the plot showed how close they were and what kind of relationship they had and it also showed just how innocent Cher's character was. To me, that said a lot about the meaning of the film that it was not just about getting married but developing trust, learning to love, building friendships and the fact that there is someone for everyone. Emma showed that as well but the pace was very slow and Emma herself did not want to accept the fact she loved George and wanted to be with him. She let herself suffer before he confronted her and then she admitted her feelings for him.
With Cher, she realized in the end that she loved Josh and at first she did not agree with it just like Emma and was a little upset about the sudden realization but she let her self want him. Josh does not exactly confront her but he does talk to her when she was sad and they end up together. This version of Jane Austen's Emma is more enjoyable and realistic like I said before plus the fact that the two characters that end up together does not get married right away. That gave the film more meaning because it ran off the track of being a typical, cliche film that ended in marriage. This adaption can be both traditional and radical. Tradition because there was a close translation of the book with slight detail changes like the Box Hill scene with Emma embarrassing a family friend and George telling her that she was wrong. Another scene would be when Elton came at Emma confessing his love to her in which she denied and she did not get out of the carriage like Cher got out the car and got robbed afterwards. But it still followed most of the details of the novel. Cher was a matchmaker, helped others, wore expensive clothing, took care of her father, her mother died when she was young, she gossiped and the fact that she ended up with her unknown love.
And with radical translation, the movie changed a lot from the book in order to make it fit to the current time of when the film was aired in the late 90's. The director made the movie fit to modern day times in the sunny, energetic state of LA instead of the old, dry, proper England with gossiping teens, money, love, sexual desires, drugs, high school drama and shopping. The clothing was different, so was the dialect,everyday youth activities (parties, shopping, learning to drive) and the pace was faster. The clothing and gossiping was faithful to novel in the way of showing wealth; what was fashionable then and now. And the fact that girls will always talk about anything and everybody no matter what day time and place.
But as I mentioned in the beginning, that this adapted version of Emma was better because of the meaning even with the slight changes and I like up-to-date films more because they are easier to understand and there are a little more entertaining to me to watch.
