A Quiet Passion

Imagine lacking the circuitry to receive signal from the world at large; tasteless, touchless, soundless. That's this movie. Awkward performances that keeps the viewer from connecting the brilliance of Emily Dickinson's to the language of her rich internal life. Smothered in dimensionless writing (and presumably, directing) and acting in which characters never once match their immaculately curated costumes. Someone else please try again - Emily Dickinson deserves better than this - even half as good as this attempt might have done her more justice.

This movie was soul crushing. Emily Dickinson was portrayed in such a way that you rejoiced for her family when she finally died. She certainly had a cross to bear, but this screenplay in no way made Emily Dickinson a sympathetic character. I purchased this movie and I will never watch it again. I am a movie lover and I could find nothing redeemable about this portrayal. I do not know how any actress could have done a better job than Cynthia Dickinson, but she should have run away from this role screaming. I blame the screen writer and the producer that decided to make the movie.

Terence Davies has done a masterful job of giving us a glimpse into the life of the enigmatic 19th century American genius of poetic expression, Emily Dickinson. Although he takes a few forgivable factual liberties, his Emily is a fascinating, witty, passionate, real person of great depth who is in charge of herself, her life, and her poetry. Anyone reading her poems knows her this way, but this screenplay brings her tantalizingly to life. Cynthia Nixon's searing portrayal of Dickinson is masterful. One feels that Nixon IS Dickinson. She makes the intensity of Dickinson's poems become flesh.

The young Emily is played by an actress who seems made of wood and recites her lines in a manner that would shame a high school play. The script is heavy on the cues for who we are to despise: the cardboard cut-out caricatures of Christians. Cynthia Nixon is the sole bright spot in a movie that is 21st century agitprop behind a 19th century New England facade.

The movie screams with Davies' brand of melancholy. It is modestly beautiful, moody and poignant in it's depiction of a restrictive unsatisfied life. The poor woman was screaming with the bitter despair of an old maid. She obviously felt that quite poignantly along with the shame of her physical appearance and made that her cross to bear. She obviously would have been the queen of plastic surgery had she had access to it. Speaking of spirituality she apparently was very lacking in that department and perhaps in need of medication, but isn't that the plague of all poets and their bread and butter? Both Jennifer Ehle and Cynthia Nixon's performances are stellar, they are captivating. The movie is at times so grim it is almost laughable. Best to be consumed with some sort of upper, even caffeine and sugar will do the trick just avoid chamomile unless you want to sulk in it's grimitude.