We’ll freely admit it. English period-piece films about troubled poets feel kinda played and predictable, and dreary. But from all accounts, the new movie “Emily” about famous poet Emily Brontë and the events that inspired her seminal novel, “Wuthering Heights,” is a big winner. The film is the directorial debut of veteran actor turned filmmaker Frances O’Connor, known for starring in Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, and critics raved, including ours.

Continue reading ‘Emily’ Trailer: Emma Mackey Stars As Emily Brontë For Director Frances O’Connor at The Playlist.

Midway through Frances O’Connor’s “Emily,” the title character finds a note. It’s been left for her, discreetly, with the time and place to meet the man she loves. O’Connor holds on a close-up of Emily as she registers her considerable excitement at the invitation, then tries to hide it, then gives up because she simply cannot. It’s like a little clinic in screen acting, in what the camera can pick up but another person often cannot, and O’Connor holds and holds and holds on her and lets her play the moment for all it’s worth. 

It’s the kind of acting moment that perhaps only an actor-turned-director knows to stay with.

Continue reading ‘Emily’ Review: A Dazzling Debut from Actor-Turned-Director Frances O’Connor [TIFF] at The Playlist.