A Quiet Passion **** (2016, Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Joanna Bacon, Jodhi May, Catherine Bailey, Duncan Duff) – Movie Review

Cynthia Nixon is astonishing as the American poet Emily Dickinson in writer-director Terence Davies’s 2016 biographical drama film A Quiet Passion.

Emily Dickinson: ‘Clarity is one thing; obviousness is quite another.’

Cynthia Nixon is tremendous, really quite astonishing, as Emily Dickinson in writer-director Terence Davies’s 2016 biographical drama film A Quiet Passion, a striking and soulful portrait of the American poet (1830 – 1886) as an increasingly bitter, frustrated, reclusive, unrecognised genius.

There’s wit and humour – even some laughs – in Davies’s expert screenplay, which is revealing as well as moving. But mostly the film is as dour, downbeat and depressing and incisive and rigorous as Dickinson’s miserable poetry.

Also scoring acting bull’s eyes are Jennifer Ehle as Emily’s kindly sister Lavinia ‘Vinnie’ Dickinson, an unrecognisable Keith Carradine as their father, Joanna Bacon as their mother, Jodhi May as Susan Gilbert, Catherine Bailey as Vryling Buffam, Duncan Duff as their brother Austin.

Emily Dickinson was known as the Belle of Amherst, and it is indeed filmed at Amherst, Massachusetts. They filmed between May and June 2015 at the Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst; the Wildwood Cemetery, Amherst, Massachusetts; and the Pelham Historical Society Museum and Historical Complex, Pelham, Massachusetts; as well as AED Studios, Flanders, Belgium for the (interiors of Emily’s home).

Shot by director of photography Florian Hoffmeister, with production design by Merijn Sep, it is a handsome looking film, with a period sense as good as its visual and dramatic senses. There must be praise too for Ilse Willocx’s set decoration and Catherine Marchand’s costume design, both immaculate.

Also in the cast are Emma Bell as Young Emily, Sara Vertongen as Miss Lyon, Rose Williams as Young Vinnie, Benjamin Wainwright as Young Austin, Marieke Bresseleers as Jenny Lind, David Van Bouwel as Concert Hall Pianist, Annette Badland as Aunt Elizabeth, and Steve Dan Mills as Dr Holland.

In an interesting way to start, before filming Davies apparently told Nixon he found her TV show Sex and the City pernicious, saying he watched an episode with the sound off and found her reactions the truest. He said Nixon was very civilised about his honesty.

Terence Davies died at his home on 7 October 2023, aged 77, after a short illness.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886).