Review: Emily

 If you had to pick a Brontë sister, definitely my favourite is Emily and I wasn't sure why until now. I'm not a huge fan of Wuthering Heights (I mean, I like it, but it's not a book that is meant to be a cosy read), and it's not my favourite Kate Bush song (Hounds of Love, since you asked) but there is something in her that resonates with me, more than Charlotte or Anne.  It was therefore with interest that I rented the new biopic of her life, starring Sex Education's Emma Mackay...

 

For starters then, when anyone in a period drama says 'It's just a bad cold...' you know they are about to snuff it.  The film begins with Emily, looking decidedly peaky after the publication of Wuthering Heights. Charlotte asks what on earth inspired the book - 'It's full of selfish people who only care for themselves!' (to which Emily replies 'Good.') Back in time we go to see what happened in Emily's life that (might of) inspired such a tale...

Emily and Branwell having a good shout in the countryside

We are introduced to Emily as a solitary girl living in a world of imagination.  I found the portrayal of the sisters very interesting as I am more used to seeing them working as a group in pieces such as Les Sœurs Brontë (a review of which is here) even though Emily is often seen as an outlier.  The tiny society that the girls had access to up in Haworth has always resulted in them seeming isolated.  Interestingly, that does not seem the case here, with Charlotte striding determinedly into the world, dragging Anne with her.  All attempts to involve Emily are doomed as there is something about Emily that just won't fit.  This Emily Brontë has autism...

Look, I know I recently claimed William Morris had autism (I stand by that) but this performance of Emily is definitely coded neurodivergent. I’m not saying Emily was actually autistic in real life, I don’t think anyone could say that for definite, just that this film codes her thus. Emily's inability to make small talk, to fit in with society, to make sustained eye contact (which is commented on) and her meltdown at school all ring the autism bell but my favourite bit is the masking - in order to fit in with the social group, she literally masks...

The mask...

Emily, mask on, masking...

For goodness sake, that's a bit on the nose.  I think another telling scene is where you see how Ellen Nussey, Charlotte’s friend, understands the social construct of being a woman in early Victorian Yorkshire.  The sisters scrabble over the wall, but Ellen makes a fuss about being lifted and helped by the men who flock to her while the girls watch, puzzled. You get the impression that Charlotte wants to learn the skills to get out, while Emily finds it all baffling and awful. 

Ellen knows boys like girls who can't get over walls...

She and Branwell are literal outsiders as they stare in at the window of their neighbours (much like Cathy and Heathcliff do in Wuthering Heights).  The Brontë siblings end up as Branwell and Emily verses Charlotte and poor Anne (who doesn't get much of a look in).  Into the mix comes the Hot Curate...

Hello Ladies...

Previously, it was thought that Hot Curate (William Weightman) was Anne's object of affection but Anne doesn't get a look in this time and it is imagined that he and Emily spark up a passionate affair (nudity alert) for an unspecified reason other than he finds her irritating and boys like that in a woman. All the women in Haworth fancy him (come on, there isn't a lot of choice and Branwell appears to be drunk half the time) but because he is attached to the Bronte household (because of the Reverend Bronte, played by Adrian Dunbar), the girls get to spend time with him.  He is seen as a bit Ted Hughes-esque and clashes with the spirited Emily, but ultimately they are drawn together.  However, when it comes to announcing their love to the world, he chickens out.  T'uh, boys.

'Then everyone caught a cold and died. The End.'

The upshot is that he is the blueprint for Heathcliff, although that could equally be said of Branwell.  Emily loves both of these problematic men and they both let her down (and die, spoiler alert). I think, arguably, to a point, neither men requires her to change - her father and sisters pressure her to fit in, act different, give up things that make her happy and special, whereas Branwell and to a point Weightman find her glorious and talented, her spirit making her unique.  Weightman's undoing is that he can only maintain their relationship in isolation to the world, and once the world gets close, he gives it up, as if he knows it's wrong. Why exactly he feels that way is not said, but there is a moment where he literally cannot handle her poetry (again, literally, dropping it on the floor) and so he either cannot cope with her emotions or finds them disturbing, as her sister does.  I have to admit my favourite bit is where Charlotte reads Wuthering Heights and is seen sobbing - Anne looks at her and says 'She finished it.'

Emily is seen as more comfortable with nature than people...

There are some liberties and some inaccuracies - Wuthering Heights was not published under Emily's name, and the filming location isn't the Bronte home in Haworth, for obvious reasons (although the village is used).  This is a very petty thing but if you have been to the parsonage (wonderful museum) you will know how close that graveyard is and how the water ran off it, contaminating everything and leading to the deaths of so many.  It does rain almost constantly in the film, which made me wince because of the contamination, and gives the film a grey/green appearance, akin to the 1995 film of Sense and Sensibility. Emma Mackay is splendid as always, looking very striking as Emily, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (who you might know from The Haunting of Hill House) is very brooding as the Hot Curate.  The locations are wonderfully sparse and pale, which makes a change from often busy period drama scenery, and again I felt this reflected the masking of Emily's emotion - it's all going on inside.  I also like that the rooms and hallways seemed narrow and confined, as opposed to the moors where she could run and be free.  

It's now available to rent and buy on DVD, and I do recommend it, especially if you have a liking for a miserable period drama or a bit of Brontë.  It isn't often I get to shout 'Don't get in bed with your dead brother! That's not hygienic!' 

Enjoy!