Rent Emily (2022)

Another Clichéd Tell-don’t-show Costume Drama - Emily review by Alphaville

Dry, clichéd, slow-paced biopic of Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights, with an equally dry clichéd score. Plinky-plonk piano? Tick. It might be better as undemanding Sunday night TV fare or even a radio play as the accent is on dialogue rather than the visual medium of film. If, like this viewer, you get bored watching talking heads, you’ll soon be reaching for FF.

Classic cash in - Emily review by PS

What can we make a film about that people will want to watch because of the subject and make some cash?

I know The Brontes. Problem is it’s already been done pretty much to death

I know we’ll make up some stuff that never happened. Doesn’t matter that if it’s highly unlikely and nonsensical   

Job done.  

A Gothic period Story - Worth Your Time - Emily review by GI

Visually beautiful and a stunning central performance by Emma Mackey in an imagined story of the life of Emily Brontë. There's a gothic vibe to this film that dips into surrealistic ghostly atmosphere and portrays Emily as an either misunderstood and gifted person or maybe a slightly disturbed one. The two mixes combine to make interesting biopic style narrative which has an all consuming passionate romance thrown in for good measure. Set in the Brontë's Yorkshire home dominated by their patriarchal father (Adrian Dunbar) the three sisters and the wayward brother have a complex relationship with one another. Sister Charlotte is portrayed as a somewhat severe and certainly jealous one constantly disappointed and critical of the sister she refers to as 'the strange one'. But it's Emily's relationship with her opium addled brother (Fionn Whitehead) and eventually her passionate affair with a high minded curate, William (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) that is the focus of the story. This all surrounds her final decision to write the one novel for which she is famous and her early death. Much of the narrative is not based on true events and first time director Frances O'Connor seems to be more interested in using the central character as a theme for creativity and 'otherness' and there is certainly an unearthly and strange feel to the film. Worth checking out.