This Bronte soars.
A passion project from actor turned writer director, Frances O’Connor, EMILY is an imagined construct of the short life of Emily Bronte, author of the ethereal evergreen, Wuthering Heights.
Kate Bush took less than four minutes to wrap up the wily, windy moors of Cathy’s tragic romantic plight, whereas O’Connor takes a leisurely 130 minutes to traverse what might have sparked Emily’s imagination.
The second youngest of the Brontë children, Emily was born in 1818, and lived with her family at Haworth in Yorkshire, with the moors on their doorstep. The family suffered great tragedy with the death of Emily’s mother in 1821, followed by the deaths of the two eldest Brontë siblings, Maria and Elizabeth in 1825, who both died from tuberculosis.
These events traumatised and haunted Emily, and O’Connor constructs an interest in the occult, with an illustrative set piece of a séance early in the film which hints at the Gothic nature of her renowned novel.
The film also hints at the inspiration for Heathcliff as a cleric of her acquaintance. If not the personification then at least the passion is more than hinted at in the character of Weightman.
In the title role, Emma Mackey delivers a performance that is intuitive, inquisitive, observant, imaginative, bold, creative, and quietly intelligent.
Her surviving siblings, Charlotte and brother Branwell, along with Anne, the youngest in the family, are excellently cast and played by Alexandra Dowling, Fionn Whitehead and Amelia Gething respectively.
The three Brontë sisters would all publish their first novels in the same year, 1847; Charlotte with ‘Jane Eyre’, Emily with ‘Wuthering Heights’, and Anne with ‘Agnes Grey’. Branwell, a despotic drug addict, a predicament possibly fuelled by his realisation that he had little of the literary talent of his sisters, was at least a great supporter of Emily’s work and ethos.
O’Connor has the very good fortune of having Michael O’Connor, who won the Oscar for The Duchess, as cozzie designer. His wardrobe is worth the price of admission.
