A troubled, ambitious young woman; a work of undeniable artistic greatness; a family name synonymous with literary achievement. The story of Emily Brontë and her sisters Charlotte and Anne — the authors of "Wuthering Heights," "Jane Eyre," and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," respectively —actually sounds like the plot of a novel. Indeed, Emily Brontë's own experiences were poured into her literary masterpiece.
Surprisingly, while the major novels from each sister have been filmed multiple times, their story has not often been adapted into movie form. There's the not-great 1946 movie DEVOTION, and the excellent British TV movie "To Walk Invisible," from 2016. And now there's EMILY, which lightly fictionalizes the title character's life — and in doing so might capture her essence in a way other efforts have failed to do. Check out the trailer and learn more about EMILY here.
You Can See Emily in February
EMILY opens on February 17. That first weekend is a limited opening, but EMILY will expand to more theatres on February 24. So if it's not playing near you on the 17th, don't worry!
Watch the Emily Trailer
This trailer does a few things quite well: It shows off Emma Mackey's terrific performance as Emily and illustrates that this movie is a period piece with great attention to detail but also a modern work that uses occasional imaginative passages to bring us into the writer's world. We also start to see how EMILY approaches the question that readers have pondered for decades: How did a clergyman's daughter write a novel like "Wuthering Heights," which was, for lack of a better description, scorchingly hot for the time?
As part of the answer, the trailer introduces the character William Weightman. He's a curate — a clergyman who worked with a local priest. Weightman worked for Emily's father, Patrick Brontë. Like Emily, Weightman was a real person, but may or may not have had any romantic ties to the title character. In the movie at least, it looks like Weightman stands as the inspiration for Heathcliffe in "Wuthering Heights."
A New Filmmaking Voice
EMILY is the directorial debut of Frances O’Connor, whose career has been focused on acting. For example, you've seen her in THE CONJURING 2 and Steven Spielberg's A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. She's also in MANSFIELD PARK and series like "The End" and "Cleverman."
Like many readers, O'Connor first read "Wuthering Heights" as a teen. The novel struck a chord with her. "I remember not wanting to leave that windy, gothic, slightly supernatural place to go back to the real world," she told The Guardian. In the same interview, O'Connor addresses the not-entirely-factual aspect of the movie, saying "if you’re going to tell a story now, I think it’s good for it to speak to women in a way that’s alive, rather than as something they’re looking at from behind a very respectful glass case.”
Emma Mackey and the Cast of Emily
To play Emily, O'Connor chose Emma Mackey, whose star rose quickly thanks to the Netflix series "Sex Education." Mackey has also starred in DEATH ON THE NILE and will be seen in BARBIE later this year. Reviews of EMILY, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, have highlighted Mackey's performance as a standout.
Alongside Emma Mackey is Oliver Jackson-Cohen as William Weightman; Fionn Whitehead as Emily's brother Branwell Brontë; Alexandra Dowling as Emily's older sister Charlotte Brontë; Amelia Gething as Anne Brontë, Emily's younger sister; Adrian Dunbar as Patrick Brontë; and Gemma Jones as Aunt Branwell.
EMILY opens on February 17.
All images courtesy of Bleecker Street .