Wild Nights with Emily

Molly Shannon is brilliant and warm as the literary icon.

This is a great example of Olnek's style. It's respectful, but it's also alive. It's serious, but it's also tongue-in-cheek. Olnek's approach gives Emily room to breathe. At last.

This is an irreverent film, but its lightness is meaningful. With each silly flourish, Olnek offers joy and companionship to a figure whose history was more conveniently presented to generations of readers as solitary.

It’s a quick, funny movie.

The film’s playful tone is a corrective to a century of scholarship that insisted on projecting the image of a moody spinster onto Emily Dickinson.

“Wild Nights” largely sidesteps the worst tropes of biographical drama, but when it falls, it falls hard.

Despite the juicy details and fascinating topic, it’s disappointing that the stilted tone makes it so difficult to connect emotionally with this important story.

It might seem odd that Molly Shannon (who's usually known for being funny) would play reclusive, sullen poet Emily ****. But, even though this isn't a full-scale comedy, it does have a humorous approach to the secret lifelong love affair she had with her sister-in-law. The film offers insight into the frustrations of having her prolific output blocked by publishers (men) and features a sprinkling of her poems throughout. While the story is interesting and the approach is entertaining, the overall effect is not as enjoyable as a full-scale comedy and not as stimulating as social commentary. Instead of capturing the period with beautiful cinematography, it has a flat, low-budget look.

This film does deserve credit for providing a new interpretation of Emily ****, and does describe the attempt to whitewash **** reputation after her death. And there are readings from **** many letters, previously unavailable. However, the film is not well written, there is little character development and many of the characters are cardboard stereotypes. The attempts at comedy are almost slapstick. Therefore, it is frequently tedious to watch.