Toronto Review: Frances O’Connor’s Feature Directorial Debut ‘Emily’
deadline.comIf you’ve ever wondered what inspired Emily Brontë to write Wuthering Heights, you’re not alone – and Frances O’Connor has made a film about it.
The actor turns writer-director with the imaginative period drama Emily, premiering at Toronto International Film Festival. Sex Education star Emma Mackey puts in a spirited performance in a feminist, revisionist spin on a much-loved author.We meet Emily along with her sisters Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) and Anne (Amelia Gething), when their happy but sheltered existence is enlivened by the arrival of a new parish priest, Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).
It’s hard to know which sister he fancies the most, and this uncertainty keeps both audience and Brontes guessing. When a romance develops, it’s intense and invariably heartbreaking – perhaps a little too tragic in its design, with one contrivance too many.
Nonetheless, O’Connor’s film is very entertaining as it elaborates on the broad known outline of Brontë’s life, adding speculative contemporary color.
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