Emily

Emily is a great period drama that announces writer/director Frances O'Connor as someone with clear talent and one to watch and further proves lead actress Emma Mackey's burgeoning stardom with a story that's funny, tragic and full of natural beauty.

Emma Mackey gives a true tour de force performance, earnestly portraying Emily's shy nature and vivid imagination whilst also having an infectious rapport with Fionn Whitehead (great) and some truly fiery chemistry with Oliver Jackson-Cohen (also great).

Frances O'Connor's direction is excellent, utilising handheld camera work to great effect with some very stylish framing but it does overuse cutting to black. The music by Abel Korzeniowski is amazing, beautifully balancing moments of whimsy with a more classical score.

Over-long, plotless and pointless with a highly improbable, corny drawn out story line. If I had been on my own I would have left an hour and a half earlier!! Overall the acting was mostly wooden with fluctuating accents from main characters. There was far too much atmospheric thunder and heay rain (its not like that in Yorkshire!) in outdoor and some indoor sequences. Predicatble story. Filled with groan inducing cinematic cliches too numerous to list and discuss here. The six star rating is for the authentic looking interior sets and excellent lighting . I sure that I will soon forget it. But some might like it.

Frances is a decent actress ..and technically she is semi decent director so far..but as a creator of art..she is far from it we had many of those ( reimagining of famous authors lives ) in which these authors were seen through their works and made part of it.. the results were absurd always from ( shakespeare in love ) to ( becoming jane )..till this one.. these fictional works suggest a writer can not write anything not autobiographical ..that there is no such thing as imagination ! Or simply these authors lives were so boring unless we spice it up by a spicy love affair...that has no source in real life actually the handsome curate in question has never been linked to this bronte AT ALL in any source.. rather it was the other tow who were allegedly connected to him ( as he was alleged to have been interested in anne in a platonic sort of way ) but alas .. all of this is so boring for todays public and creators.. so we make emily bronte something of a DH lawrence INSTEAD I cant wait for tolstoy biography inspired by anna karenina ..next.

First. The things I liked: the music the costumes the fact that it was filmed in Haworth and roundabouts it's beautifully shot.

However, it veered so far away from anything known about about Emily's character or known facts about the Brontes as to be hilarious!

Snogging your employer's wife in church in Victorian Yorkshire? I don't think so!

Some events and even names lifted straight from Wuthering Heights and presented as real life.

The extremely reserved Emily transformed into a raving hysterical nutter with attachment issues.

Emily and Wuthering Heightskerp inspiring film makers, but anything that does do either justice remains sadly elusive.

This is is well-directed and well acted with beautiful photography. It is loosely based on Emily Bronte's life and depicts events which are mirrored in Wuthering Heights. It is not hard to find factual errors eg.it was Anne who had the relationship with William Weightman, but if you just treat as a story in its own right, it is a great piece of film-making. I was reminded that the films: Becoming Jane and Shakespeare in Love, were also about famous authors used failed romances as the impetus to write. I noticed that the first edition of her book had her own name inside the cover. Like her sisters she wrote under a pseudonym: Ellis Bell.