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| Molly Shannon (left) and Susan Ziegler in "Wild Nights with Emily" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
This is all explored in writer-director Madeleine Olnek’s biographical comedy, “Wild Nights with Emily,” in which she focuses on the writings of Dickinson, and with a funny and dramatic performance from Molly Shannon in the title role, this movie makes for a fascinating biopic.
In 19th-century Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson is a gifted writer who’s struggling to get published. While she writes, she soon begins a relationship with her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson (Susan Ziegler), who becomes Emily’s muse for her poetry.
Although this is a comedy and Shannon thrives in this genre, the role of a complex literary icon isn’t a character you would quite expect her to play, but she pulls it off as she shows Dickinson’s love for language and desire to share her words with the world. Shannon has a few opportunities to display her comedic talents, but it’s the dramatic aspects of her character that will impress you. Shannon brings out the passion in Emily’s voice as she puts her ideas on paper, letting us know how much writing serves as a significant creative outlet to explore her relationship, which was seen as taboo at the time.
The connection that Shannon and Ziegler share is a powerful example of how an artist’s life can influence their work. You see the sense of life that sparks between them when they’re together, as well as the quiet heartbreak of them having to keep their relationship a secret, restricted to secret meetings and delivering letters to each other by a third party. Through all of this, we’re given insight into who these two women are and how their love presents itself in Dickinson’s writing.
During the first third of the film, there are scenes where we see younger versions of Emily and Susan, played by Dana Melanie and Sasha Frolova, respectively. These sequences offer some intriguing views into how their relationship began, but the acting from Melanie and Frolova isn’t as strong as it should be, seeing as they have to establish a heartfelt relationship between their characters.
Amy Seimetz, who portrays Mabel Loomis Todd, an editor who published Dickinson’s work following her passing, gives an entertaining performance as a young woman who works her way into the lives of the Dickinsons. With this role, Seimetz provides memorable work as she brings out her character’s high-society personality in humorous ways.
Olnek’s screenplay constructs a movie that’s just under 90 minutes, but it still manages to give the viewer enough details concerning the formation of Emily and Susan’s relationship and how much the former dedicated herself to trying to break out in the literary world. Often, Olnek places quotes from Dickinson’s poems onto the screen, with Dickinson narrating them on a few occasions; and, as they appear during the scenes to which they relate, this furthers the notion of Dickinson’s life and writing having a deep connection with each other.
While the film dives into Emily’s journey to have her work recognized and her relationship with Susan, the narrative also deals with the concept of having one of the most important aspects of her life erased from her past, a concept that’s encapsulated in poignant fashion in the film’s last couple of minutes. This is made all of the more eye-opening with some on-screen text before the end credits that explains how this erasure was reversed.
The first half of the film tends to be slow in spots, but as the film goes on and we approach the second half, you’re drawn further into Emily and Susan’s relationship as Olnek shows the tenderness between them and the sense of loss of how they didn’t get to live out their relationship in the way that they wished. Olnek brings us into the mind of Dickinson, constructing a psychological and emotional study of who she was, making “Wild Nights with Emily” an intriguing look at a writer and the abundance of personal thoughts that she entrusted to her readers.
Grade: B+
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