A Quiet Passion

2017 • 125 minutes

À propos de ce film

Unconventional, yet iconic - Emily Dickinson was truly a woman before her time. Deeply tormented by gender disparities and her own feelings of insecurity, the American poet fought eternally to find her place in life, withdrawing entirely from social life after a crisis of faith. Through her beautiful, poetic work, Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) narrates her adult life in Massachusetts, taking the audience on an emotional journey. Nixon’s intoxicating performance captures Dickinson’s fierce optimism and faith in this lyrical film, tied together by master filmmaker Terence Davies.

Notes et avis

This is the slowest of all slow movies. I usually like slow movies but this one just plods along, slow inexplicable scene after slow inexplicable scene, complete with characters transitioning into older versions of themselves that, at best, don't look at all like their younger selves and, at worst, are just very odd-looking people (the brother looks like he can't move his face--makeup? an alien? who knows?). The characters are not fully developed. Does the beautiful sister who is always laughing gleefully at unfunny things have no life outside the house at all? Emily falls deeply in love with a married minister, presumably off-screen because it certainly doesn't happen on-screen. There is no explanation of who some of the minor character are (who is that guy that stands at the bottom of the stairs yelling up to Emily who is hiding out of sight?). The repartee is far from witty. The characters often find things to be very funny when, in fact, there is little humour. After watching patiently for over an hour with another hour yet to go, I decided I couldn't waste anymore time on it and turned it off, a rare thing for me.