Nick Scott reviews Emily, the imagined story of the life of Emily Bronte, who wrote that classic English novel Wuthering Heights. Nick says ” Emily Bronte would have to be the best and most complex female character portrayal I have ever seen”.

The film tells the story of Emily’s life with her family. Early in the film Emily’s sister Charlotte tells her that the whole village knows her as “the unusual one” The narrative of her imagined life is very passionate and powerful. It hints at the kind of events that may have inspired Wuthering Heights. It’s a combination of fantastic acting, music, camera work and music. The rural setting is well used to supplement the drama of the story.

Emily’s siblings, Charlotte, Anne and Branwell,have fascinating stories of their own and are played by very skilled actors. But, sometimes, the stories of the other sisters take up too much of the narrative space (though never to such an extent they detract from the main plot).

The character of Branwell Bronte (played by Fionn Whitehead) was a mystery to me; like most people I only knew of the Bronte Sisters. Branwell is adored by his sister and could have been the inspiration for the character Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.

When you see the film it’s fun to try and make up your mind as to whether it is reasonable to describe Emily Bronte as “the unusual one”. She is not your average female lead character. Emma Mackey does a superb job of acting such a complex and passionate role.

Nick Scott Nick Scott has a B.A from The University of Waikato where he studied film under Sam Edwards. Nick has retained a keen interest in cinema. He studied Te Reo Maori at Te Wananga O Aotearoa part-time for 3 years and then from 2014 to 2016 Nick collaborated in writing “The Traveller’s guide to Maori Place Names”. Nick is a regular Film Reviewer on ARTbop and has contributed an episodic novel “Temple’s Job”, a creative’s Q&A and a short story Doppelganger (in WORDS)