Review of A Quiet Passion (2016) by Art S — 01 Oct 2018

The first thing I noticed about this biopic of Emily Dickinson by director Terence Davies is the remarkable use of light (kudos to cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister). The 19th century sets are lit as if by candle or firelight or with natural light streaming in from the windows.

The sets and costumes certainly evoke the time and place - as do the hairstyles (Keith Carradine is nearly unrecognisable in his beard and sideburns). The plot starts with young Emily's non-traditional home life, supported by parents who allow her to resist Christian evangelizing and to voice her own thoughts alongside a sister, Vinnie, and a brother, Austin, raised similarly.

Emily begins writing poetry and even has a poem published, anonymously. Then, with a spooky use of morphing to age the characters in the onscreen daguerreotypes, we see the children as young adults, moving into relationships and careers.

Emily is now played by Cynthia Nixon (yes, she who just ran for New York State governor in the recent primary). Supported by her friend, Vryling Buffam, Emily continues to speak truth to power and to advocate proto-feminist views.

However, she eventually becomes embittered and melancholy, a reclusive eccentric dressed all in white, spurning potential suitors even as she seems lonely. The success she seeks through her poetry does not materialise.

On the soundtrack, we hear her poems in voiceover ("Because I could not stop for Death" is the one that stands out as familiar to me, but my relationship to poetry is now a distant one, although it is refreshing to take the time to drink deep of words, even ironically through film).

Ultimately, then, the trajectory for Emily and the film is painfully downward, observed by Terence Davies quietly but with passion. Looking at his filmography shows that I seem to have missed several recent Davies films -- but I highly recommend Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992), his meditative reveries about his own youth in England.

A Quiet Passion doesn't measure up to these earlier films but it does contain many special moments (especially in the camerawork); however, casual viewers should be prepared for a "slow" film.