That name on the book cover is our first warning bell.
Only two minutes into a bold and audacious retelling of Emily Bront毛鈥檚 life starring an uncommonly compelling Emma Mackey, we spy freshly bound volumes of 鈥淲uthering Heights,鈥� her only novel and life鈥檚 achievement.
鈥淏y Emily Bront毛,鈥� the cover says. But Bront毛 fans and even some casual readers will know that Emily, like her sisters Charlotte and Anne, published at first under a male pseudonym, in her case Ellis Bell. It was both a bid for privacy and a concession to a Victorian society in which a female author could hardly expect to garner the same respect and deference accorded her male counterparts.
This change is the first 鈥� but not the most important 鈥� way in which writer-director Frances O鈥機onnor, in a hugely impressive debut feature, reimagines the life of the 鈥渟trange鈥� Bront毛, who died at 30, unable to give the world more novels and poems. Most brazenly, O鈥機onnor gives Emily a love affair 鈥� fiery, forbidden and ultimately tragic 鈥� with turbulent passion unfolding on the windswept Yorkshire moors.
Remind you of anything? These are the same 鈥渨ily, windy moors,鈥� to quote singer Kate Bush, where Heathcliff and Catherine lived their own doomed love. O鈥機onnor both tells the story of Bront毛鈥檚 鈥淲uthering Heights鈥� and places her inside it.
Does it matter that this relationship 鈥� with Bront毛's real-life, hunky French tutor and town curate 鈥� is fictional, and that he was possibly involved with sister Anne? Again, purists will balk, but O鈥機onnor has been frank about creating an augmented life for Emily, a story that is 鈥減art Emily, part 鈥榃uthering Heights,鈥� and part things from my experiences.鈥�
So perhaps it鈥檚 best to see that name engraved on the book as O鈥機onnor鈥檚 two-minute warning 鈥� if you鈥檙e looking for only recorded facts, she's saying, stop while you鈥檙e ahead. But actually, please don鈥檛 stop.
The film poses a basic question: How did a sheltered young woman, a reverend's daughter in the small village of Haworth, come up with the emotional bandwidth to create 鈥淲uthering Heights?鈥� It鈥檚 a question asked out loud by older sister Charlotte, who loves but is also violently jealous of her sister. 鈥淭here's something you鈥檙e hiding from me,鈥� Charlotte says, demanding to know the inspiration of what she calls an 鈥渦gly鈥� book. Emily, meanwhile, is deathly ill. She still manages a crafty smile.
We now flash back to earlier years. Emily, despite her dark and brooding beauty, is a quiet soul, 鈥渢he strange one鈥� in Charlotte鈥檚 unkind words and an 鈥渙dd fish鈥� by her own description. Charlotte, the more socially and conventionally successful sister, thrives at school, where she is offered a teaching post. Emily tries to join her and fails spectacularly, suffering homesickness and soon returning home. 鈥淚s there something wrong with me?鈥� she asks her brother, Branwell.
Emily's father assigns her a French tutor: William Weightman, a new curate who helps the reverend at church. The strappingly handsome young man (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) has at first a prickly connection to Emily, but things change when they study the universal language of love. It鈥檚 great fun, by the way, to hear the conveniently French-born Mackey, a star of 鈥淪ex Education,鈥� display rapidly improving French as she grows closer to her tutor. Sex education, indeed.
Mackey is perfectly cast. When her hair is down, as when she runs in the rain on the moors, or rolls down hills with her beloved Branwell (an excellent Fionn Whitehead as the loving brother who ultimately sinks into opium addiction), we could be in 2023, so contemporary is her look. But put her hair in a bonnet and listen to her speak, and we鈥檙e transported to the 19th century in a flash. The young actor鈥檚 versatility over more than two hours, as she experiences passion, lust, anger, heartbreak, grief, ambition and more, is something to behold.
In O鈥機onnor鈥檚 telling, it is clearly this lived experience that forms the basis for the book Emily finally sits down to write. Which raises another question: Is O鈥機onnor arguing that one can only write what one has lived 鈥� that a famously fertile imagination is not enough?
O鈥機onnor鈥檚 own explanation is broader, though. She has called 鈥淓mily" her love letter to young women of today, who, she hopes, will respond to its celebration of one's authentic voice and potential. And that they'll allow themselves to be, essentially, imperfect.
Or, we could say, 鈥渟trange.鈥� Emily asks Branwell if he thinks she is strange at one point, and he responds: 鈥淓veryone鈥檚 strange if you look at them for long enough.鈥�
Luckily we get to look long and and hard at this Emily, brought provocatively to life by O鈥機onnor and her star. Strange or not, it鈥檚 hard to look away.
鈥淓尘颈濒测,鈥� a Bleecker Street Films release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America 鈥渇or some sexuality/nudity and drug use. 鈥� Running time: 130 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying adult parent or guardian.
Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press
