2022 ( UK | USA ) ( Biography, Drama, Romance )
Starring: Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead
Director: Frances O’Connor
Emily Jane Brontë was just 30-years-old when she died and never knew the extent of her only novel’s success. Published in 1847, just a year before her death, under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights’ savagery and passion shocked contemporary critics, few of whom could have been persuaded it had been written by a woman.
This film covers the years leading up to Emily writing her novel, which is about cruel and haunted characters who play devastating games with love and social status. She regularly appears sullen or mortified by her surroundings and tends to steal away to private spaces or simply into her own head. She’s the black sheep in her family, both berated and neglected by her father (Adrian Dunbar), a widower and parish priest. He showers all his favour on Emily’s older sister Charlotte and older brother Branwell, whose wayward ways demand special attention from the patriarch.
This film imagines what could have motivated Emily Jane Brontë to write her greatest and best-known work (“Wuthering Heights”) in her short life. The movie is both a fitting tribute and an imaginative portrait of an enigmatic author whose work has stood the test of time.
(2hr 10min)