Emily parents guide

Emily Parent Guide

This biopic of Emily Bronte is highly fictionalized but the sensational details are less interesting than the fact that a shy young woman produced an untamed novel.

Overall C-

Theaters: A semi-fictional exploration of the life of Emily Bronte, the author of Wuthering Heights.

Release date February 17, 2023

Violence B-
Sexual Content D+
Profanity A-
Substance Use D

Why is Emily rated R? The MPAA rated Emily R for some sexuality/nudity and drug use.

Run Time: 130 minutes

Parent Movie Review

The Brontë sisters have always been one of the great mysteries of English literature. How did three young women with sheltered lives in a Yorkshire parsonage manage to write some of the most passionate literature of the 19th century? With Emily, director Frances O’Connor tries to explain how the shy, socially averse middle Brontë sister became the author of Wuthering Heights, a novel best known for its wild, untamed emotion.

Emily Brontë, as portrayed by Emma Mackey, is restless, angry, and defiant, trapped by a culture that represses female ambition. Desires that are normal in our era – self-expression, career development, and charting one’s own path – are seen as rebellious and unwomanly in her day. She’s also constrained by the dynamics in her family. Her clergyman father prefers her successful older sister, Charlotte, and her adored brother, Branwell is drinking himself to death. The teaching career that has been arranged for Emily collapses under her introversion and social anxiety. When all feels lost, Emily finds release through her pen.

Literature fans need to be aware that Emily is a highly fictionalized biopic. A tortured love story of dubious historicity dominates the plot (and introduces unnecessary sex and nudity). The script also features complex sibling relationships. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne are obviously devoted to one another and their ne’er-do-well brother, Branwell, but their insight into each other gives them power to wound, which they do to great effect. The web of emotions that enmeshes the residents of the Haworth parsonage doesn’t just encourage ambition; it also throttles dreams.

The film’s fevered emotional climate is skillfully brought to the screen by the cast. Emma Mackey spends a lot of time glaring at the camera, but she manages to exude a sense of restrained rebellion under a mask of tenuous propriety. Fionn Whithead brings brother Branwell to life in his weakness, despair, and selfish affection for his sisters. The handsome curate, William Weightman, is given plenty of conflicted desires by a moody Oliver Jackson-Cohen. Throughout the film, the actors’ fine performances are routinely sabotaged by what is one of the most annoying soundtracks I’ve ever heard. Intrusive and loud, the soundscape often replaces dialogue, to the detriment of the story.

The tale of the Brontë sisters is prime fodder for drama – the isolation, the restrained emotion, the family tragedy, the unexpected literary success. Reserved Emily, in particular, intrigues readers with the undisciplined passion of her immortal novel. Ms. O’Connor tries to find the source of that emotion in Emily’s life and creates an affair and some casual heroin use to build what she sees as a suitable backstory. What she creates instead is pure Victorian melodrama: it’s serviceable enough as a period film but it feels unconvincing for any serious reader of Emily Brontë’s unearthly tale.

Directed by Frances O'Connor. Starring Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead. Running time: 130 minutes. Theatrical release February 17, 2023. Updated

Watch the trailer for Emily

Emily
Rating & Content Info

Why is Emily rated R? Emily is rated R by the MPAA for some sexuality/nudity and drug use.

Violence:   A sick woman faints. Main characters spy on their neighbors in a voyeuristic fashion and are chased by dogs. A man strikes his son with a crop. People die of illnesses and a dead body is seen.
Sexual Content: A man kisses a married woman. A man and woman kiss passionately on several occasions. A man and woman kiss and remove each other’s clothing. There is no explicit nudity but sex is strongly implied. A couple have sex under a blanket. A woman’s bare breast is briefly visible while a man and woman have sex.  A woman places a man’s hand on her chest.
Profanity:  There are a few terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: Adults drink alcohol and appear to be intoxicated on several occasions. Adults smoke cigarettes. A main character finds a container of opium: she is not shown using it but is shown experiencing the after-effects on a couple of occasions.

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Emily Parents' Guide

You can learn more about the Brontë sisters and their place in English literature in the articles below:

Wikipedia: Brontë family

The Atlantic: The Brontë’s Secret

History Extra: The Brontës: the unfortunate and unlikely tale of the world’s “greatest literary sisters”

Digital Spy: Emily true story: Did Emily Brontë have an affair with William Weightman?

 

Loved this movie? Try these books…

The novels of the Brontë sisters are available online. Project Gutenberg provides free versions of Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. If you enjoy these, their other works are also available on the same site.

Home Video

Related home video titles:

There are fine TV miniseries versions of Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. A film version of Jane Eyre is also available.

The tortured lives of authors provide inspiration for plenty of biopics, with varying degrees of historical accuracy. Becoming Jane depicts the early years and doomed romances of Regency author Jane Austen. The Man Who Invented Christmas attempts mines incidents in Charles Dickens’ complicated life as supposed points of inspiration for his classic novella “A Christmas Carol”. The tragic romance of poet John Keats is the subject of Bright Star. An old and discouraged William Shakespeare returns to his family home and faces past tragedies in All Is True. J.M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan, is given a backstory in Finding Neverland.