One of the most important and well-known women writers the English-speaking world has ever known is Emily Brontë. The writer of one of the most iconic romance novels, Wuthering Heights may have left this world far too soon, but her presence and writing are still discussed to this very day. Emily’s Wuthering Heights and her sister Charlotte’s Jane Eyre have cemented the Brontë family as one of the most talented in history. However, their upbringing was not characterized by devotion and collaboration but by solitude and an overwhelming feeling of dread. This is the world that director Frances O’Connor brings to life in Emily, a thoughtful and romantic story of a misunderstood woman coming to terms with her talent and herself. For anybody who can’t wait to see this critically acclaimed period piece, here’s everything we know about how, when, and where you can watch this writer’s tale.
When Will Emily Be Released?
Emily previously premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2023, but it will be distributed to US audiences by Bleecker Street on February 17th. The film will expand into more theaters the following weekend on February 24, 2023.
Will Emily Be Available on Streaming the Same Day as Theaters?
Unfortunately, Emily will not be available for streaming on the same day as its theatrical release and there is no news on when it will end up on streaming.
However, Bleecker Street and Hulu signed a streaming deal in 2019. Under the terms of the deal, Bleecker Street’s future titles will be available to stream exclusively on Hulu after their theatrical release. You can get a subscription starting at $6.99 a month.
Find Showtimes for Emily:
You can use the links below to find showtimes for Emily at a theater near you.
Here Is Bleecker Street’s Official Synopsis For Emily:
Emily imagines Emily Brontë’s own Gothic story that inspired her seminal novel, Wuthering Heights. Haunted by the death of her mother, Emily struggles within the confines of her family life and yearns for artistic and personal freedom, and so begins a journey to channel her creative potential into one of the greatest novels of all time.
Is There a Trailer for Emily?
A trailer for Emily was released on January 12th. The trailer opens with a deceptively simple question. “Emily, how did you write Wuthering Heights?” From then, we are introduced to the strange and introverted girl that Emily Brontë was. Her behavior bewilders outsiders and her poetry shames her family, even her sister Charlotte who previously shared her passion but now seems keener on social acceptability. The only member of her family who accepts her for who she is is her brother. Initially closed off to anyone outside of her family, she appears disinterested in the local curate and him with her. However, disdain turns to desire and their passionate affair gives birth to a mix of shame, love, and creativity.
Who Is in the Cast of Emily?
Starring as the titular character, Emily Brontë, is Emma Mackey. Mackey is most recognizable for her breakout role in the Netflix teen comedy-drama Sex Education in which she plays Maeve, a sexually experienced outcast who often hides her poor upbringing as well as her unbelievable proclivity for academics. Being a bilingual actress, Mackey made her feature film debut in the French film, Eiffel, which told the fictionalized romantic story of the famous architect, Gustave Eiffel’s love affair with his childhood sweetheart, Adrienne Bourgès, played by Mackey. She went on to star in the star-studded Agatha Christie adaptation Death on the Nile by Kenneth Branagh where she starred alongside famous actors like Gal Gadot, Annette Bening, Rose Leslie, and Letitia Wright. Later this year she is set to star alongside Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, as well as fellow Sex Education alumni Connor Swindells and Ncuti Gatwa in Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated Barbie.
Starring alongside Mackey as Emily’s supportive but alcoholic brother with writing aspirations of his own, Branwell, is Fionn Whitehead. Whitehead first came to prominence for his role as a young British private named Tommy in Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic Dunkirk. Since then, he has starred alongside Emma Thompson in The Children Act as well as a standalone interactive episode of Black Mirror. He is also set to appear in a miniseries adaptation of Great Expectations where he will play Pip. Oliver Jackson-Cohen stars as William Weightman, the local curate who wins Emily’s affection. He is best known for his role as Adrian Griffin in the 2020 adaptation of The Invisible Man as well as his roles on Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Alexandra Dowling stars as Charlotte, Emily’s distant older sister. Dowling is most famous for her TV appearances on shows like Merlin and Game of Thrones as well as her supporting role as Queen Anne in BBC One’s The Musketeers.
Who Is the Director of Emily?
The director of Emily is Frances O’Connor. Though this is O’Connor’s first effort as a director and writer, she is not new to the business and has been working for over 20 years as an actress. She made her film debut in the 1996 Australian independent romantic comedy, Love and Other Catastrophes and received her first nomination for Best Actress at the AACTA Awards. She received international acclaim for the first time when she starred in the Jane Austen adaptation Mansfield Park, in which she played the lead heroine, Fanny Price. A few years later, she landed a role in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence and earned several awards and honors from American critics. Recently, she has starred in the American TV series, Once Upon A Time as well as the successful horror film, The Conjuring 2.
Other Movies Like Emily
To help you out while you wait for your local theater to screen this historical drama, check out these three other films which explore the trials and tribulations of the world’s greatest women authors.
The Brontë Sisters - Before Frances O’Connor decided to show the cinematic world Emily Brontë’s plight, French auteur André Techiné offered a portrait of the lives of all three sisters. Set over a period of ten years, The Brontë Sisters examines each of the sisters' relationships with their own brother Branwell, who dreamed of being a great writer, only to be outshined by his sisters and die prematurely from alcoholism. It’s a somber and quiet film grounded by the brilliant but underappreciated work of each sister. Not only is the film a snapshot of a great British family but one of 1970s French cinema as each of the sisters is played by once-in-a-generation talents like Isabelle Adjani, Isabelle Huppert, and Marie-France Pisier.
Becoming Jane - While Emily Brontë has written one of England’s best romantic dramas, romantic comedies belong squarely to Jane Austen. Between Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma, and so much more Austen was able to offer a new idea of romance along with a dry wit that completely revolutionized the genre. In Becoming Jane, the audience is offered a look at the woman behind the writer and tries to answer the question of why a woman who wrote exclusively about love and marriage chose to live and die as a single woman. Starring Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway as Jane, the film follows her love affair with Thomas Langlois Lefroy (James McAvoy), the only man she came close to marrying.
The Hours - In one of the most inventive adaptations of a classic piece of British literature, Nicole Kidman earned her first and only Oscar for her harrowing portrayal of Virginia Woolf. Based on Woolf’s own novel, Mrs. Dalloway, the film follows three generations of women who are cosmically connected by their resemblance to the novel’s main protagonist, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Alongside Kidman, Meryl Streep stars as a literary editor grappling with a party honoring her friend sick with AIDS and Julianne Moore plays a housewife in the 1950s unable to break free of the societal molds that imprison her. For a movie that not only examines an author, but their effect across generations, this is the movie to see.