Film Review: EMILY (2022): Emma Mackey Plays Emily Brontë To Perfection in Frances O’Connor’s Solemn but Well Made Film

Emily Review

Emily (2022) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Frances O’Connor and starring Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead, Alexandra Dowling, Amelia Gething, Adrian Dunbar, Gemma Jones, Gerald Lepkowski, Sacha Parkinson, Phillip Desmeules and Elijah Wolf.

Emily Brontë is played by Emma Mackey with plenty of raw vulnerability and fierce emotion in British-Australian filmmaker Frances O’Connor’s moving film, Emily. Emily Brontë was the author of one of the most cherished novels of all-time, Wuthering Heights. That was her only book. Emily’s personal life was filled with heartbreak and despair if the portrait displayed to the audience in O’Connor’s movie is at all accurate. O’Connor’s new picture is a film which will draw people into Emily’s life even though the movie’s final outcome is pretty much well-known to anyone who has studied Emily Brontë’s literary masterpiece and/or the history of the author. Emily was considered the “odd-girl-out” of the Brontë sisters but she had plenty of passion within her that sadly went suppressed for much of her brief life.

Charlotte was Emily’s oldest sister. She is ably played in the movie by Alexandra Dowling. Their mother has died and this has left a void in the Brontë sisters’ hearts. Early in the movie, we see the bond between the Brontë sisters portrayed and one scene in particular which shows the three of them running in slow motion together is particularly effective in demonstrating the passions these sisters possessed as a family unit. Amelia Gething portrays younger sister, Anne and does so quite well.

Emily is a story of what, at one point in the film, seems like unrequited love that occurs when Emily falls for William Weightman (an effective Oliver Jackson-Cohen), her dad’s curate who teaches Emily French. This film is more complex than that, however. Both the characters of Emily and William have intense feelings towards one another which are properly demonstrated through the interaction (and tension) between the two performers on screen. The emotional and physical connection between Emily and William does lead them to having sexual relations which further complicates the already complicated story line.

Another key character in the movie is Emily’s brother, Branwell (Fionn Whitehead) who was an alcoholic and drug abuser. Branwell becomes an obstacle to the love story between William and Emily being fulfilled as details progress in the plot. It doesn’t help matters when a disgruntled Emily tears apart Branwell’s writing calling it “lazy.”

Charlotte and Emily are competitive to a fault. Charlotte seems to be very critical of Emily and it leads Emily to go about her daily endeavors with occasional self-doubts rather than with full confidence. A mask featured in the movie is also a supporting player in and of itself as the characters wear it at one point earlier in the film and it also helps propel the story line into motion when Emily plays the ghost of the sister’s mother with interesting results.

Anyone who has read Wuthering Heights (either for school or for pleasure) will find the central story presented in Emily very intriguing to watch. Mackey brings to life her character very vividly and is at the level of early Keira Knightley performances with her touching and devastating performance here which leaps off the screen with passion. A key sex scene between Mackey and William is very beautifully filmed with the actress showing us the determination of Emily to live a fulfilling and prosperous life. When her heart is broken, we can’t help but feel all her sadness and the scenes between Mackey and Dowling create a multi-faceted familial relationship which feels so authentic that it will certainly move viewers.

Whitehead also fares extremely well in what could have been a lesser role in another picture. It becomes hard to decipher what to make out of the character of Branwell who basically destroys Emily’s hopes for happiness through his drastic decisions which are heart-wrenching in their excesses. Whitehead plays the part with just the right amount of subtext so the audience will understand why he does what he does even though it’s impossible to agree with the choices he makes.

Several scenes will hit the viewer hard due to their emotional complexity and make the movie difficult to walk away from without being affected. There is the bond between family members as well as the relationship between Emily and William that makes the story so powerful to watch. If it was to be said that one scene stood out, in particular, it’s the one where Emily tears apart Branwell’s work as Emily has hit rock bottom and takes her anger out on Branwell in a moment of uncensored, raw frustration.

Anyone who remembers the love affair in 1998’s drama, The Governess (which starred Minnie Driver) will definitely see the parallels between Emily and Driver’s character from that film regarding the love story in Emily. Mackey’s character’s perseverance in her time of despair is what led her to publishing her book which is a classic that has been taught in classrooms for quite some time now. Emily is a film with a phenomenal performance by Mackey that should further set her career into motion. While history connoisseurs may debate some of the historical accuracy of the new movie, the film is still a dramatically devastating story that will move audiences and you don’t have to have an appreciation for fine literature to relate to the characters which makes the film particularly stand out from similarly themed films.

Rating: 8/10

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