Review of Emily, directed by Frances O’Connor

Now, I’ve never managed to get around to reading Wuthering Heights (oops—it’s been on my to-read list since I was in high school. That was quite a few years ago!), but when I saw that Emily was coming out several years ago, I knew I wanted to see the movie.

I have a thing for books and movies about women writers and artists, even if it’s someone I had literally never heard of until I found out about the book/movie/show focusing on said woman.

I originally was supposed to review this movie for my film critic gig, but then I never heard back from the PR people.

What ended up happening was that I kept booking a ticket to see this in theaters instead when it came out, but because it was the middle of the winter, I didn’t feel like going. It took me almost two years to get myself together and see this movie, which I’m not entirely surprised by in the end.

So I watched the film with my Kanopy subscription one lonely weekday after finals had finished and I had nothing to do outside of my freelance film work. And man, it was worth it. I regret waiting this long.

Let’s get into the review!

The fictionalized story of Emily Brontë and a romance that inspired her literary life.

The film begins at the end: Emily Brontë, who died tragically young for her age, lays dying. She is ill, and her sister Charlotte is sitting by her beside, and they know she wrote the novel Wuthering Heights, despite it being published under a different name initially.

Charlotte asks her what inspired Emily to write the novel, and we go back in time to figure out the origins of the novel. Note that this is a fictional take on the inspiration.

Emily Brontë had always been a outcast in her family, and when her sister Charlotte had returned home from school, Emily wanted to tell her about the worlds she had been dreaming up in her free time.

She’s shrugged off by Charlotte, which is a theme throughout the course of the movie—Emily is depicted and seen as someone who is brushed off and branded as weird, which puts her in a place of mockery at times.

A young man named William arrives on the scene when Charlotte returns home. All of the women are obsessed with him from the get-go, but Emily just kind of brushes off his existence.

The first major scene involving everyone, though, is when they play a game where they put on a mask at night, pretend to be a character, and everyone else has to guess who the character is. But when Emily puts the mask on, she embodies the spirit of their dead mother, and when a wind busts open the window, everyone believes it.

Disturbed by what just happened, and how Emily, through their mother’s voice, passed on messages, they all decide to bury the mask after that event. Emily then makes the decision to try and learn to be a teacher, and she decides to go with Charlotte to school. However, her brother Branwell, who attends the nearby art school, and she decide to drop out, and Branwell declares he will be a writer. Emily does not know what to do.

William is enlisted to teach Emily French, and the two have philosophical discussions as they have their lessons.

Branwell ultimately is sent away after caught kissing the mistress of another house, and Emily starts to have a romantic relationship with William.

But when Charlotte comes back from school again, she senses what’s happening immediately. William decides to end the relationship, and Emily, devastated by what he did, takes out her problems on her brother and tells him his dreams sucj.

Emily wants to leave with Charlotte for Belgium, and tells William she will no longer write. William writes her a letter telling her not to do that, but he gives it to her brother, who simply doesn’t do anything with it. In Belgium, Emily learns William died, and the sisters come home as they learn their brother, Branwell, is now dying too.

Branwell gives Emily the letter, then he dies. She writes Wuthering Heights in response, but then Emily becomes ill, too. On her deathbed she admits her love to William, and asks Charlotte to burn their letters. She does so after Emily passes, and becomes a writer too.

Overall Thoughts

This was the kind of movie I expected as I started watching it, and I was happy with that outcome. Certainly this film takes creative liberties with the romance and backstory behind the book, but there are some gorgeous moments scattered throughout the film that I would say unfold like visual poetry at times.

There are some films about women writers and artists that I am not a fan of, but I genuinely liked this one.

It’s certainly not my favorite in the world, but I felt like it captured the spirit of an artist and writer in Emily, and how she felt misunderstood.

It’s this understanding of her that we can create a movie, and while it might take those liberties, it sees her. It tells a story about her. We often don’t even include women writers in conversations, so this feels special to me.

Watch it if you haven’t already.

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