Molly Shannon is spot-on in the serio-comic WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, a completely different take on the personal life of poet Emily Dickinson, portraying her as a sharp-witted woman in a lifelong romantic relationship with her sister-in-law Susan, played by Susan Ziegler. This is not how we usually think of the reclusive poet.
Writer/director Madeleine Olnek drew on Dickinson’s own personal letters to craft a film portrait of Dickinson that is strongly feminist and LGBTQ but also just plain fun and unexpectedly entertaining. The key to that is Molly Shannon. Shannon runs with the idea with comic glee. She is a lot of fun to watch, upending Victorian conventions just out of view, in her signature style, with Susan Ziegler providing a good foil to her wilder moments. Olnek also adds an ironic, comic touch with Mabel Loomis Todd (Amy Seimetz), who published the poet’s work after her death, set herself up as an authority on her, crafting the recluse myth while covering up evidence of Dickinson’s real love life, even though she never met Emily face-to-face.
Emily Dickinson seems to be having kind of a moment. In the 2016 biopic A QUIET PASSION, she was played by Cynthia Nixon. Both films take on the image of the poet as a recluse while highlighting her razor-sharp intelligence, and also detail the way male hostility to women writers limited publication of her work. But the more comic, at times even light-hearted WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY focuses more of Emily Dickinson’s love life.
Using Dickinson’s personal letters, writer/director Olnek creates an eccentric, highly-entertaining tale about a woman with a most buttoned-down image, aided by Molly Shannon’s wonderful slightly loopy performance. Living next door to each other in Amherst, Emily and Susan shuttle back and forth constantly, largely ignoring Emily’s comically clueless brother Austin (Kevin Seal), Susan’s husband.
While WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY is a lot of fun, it makes serious points about Dickinson and the era in which she lived. The film delves into how Dickinson’s love life was covered up and the recluse myth created to conform with Victorian sensibilities after her death, and also the considerable obstacles male-dominated society placed before female authors, particularly a bold, challenging poet like Dickinson. The film includes periodic excerpts from her letters and poems, sure to delight fans.
Dana Melanie plays the young Emily Dickinson, while Sasha Frolova plays young Susan. Jackie Monahan plays Emily’s sister Lavinia and Brett Gelman plays Colonel Thomas Higginson, the editor who was Emily’s purported friend but did little to publish her work.
WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY is a surprising, engaging romp with the delightful Molly Shannon, with informative insights on the life of the beloved poet. WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY opens Friday, April 26, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
