A Quiet Passion

Music Box Films | Release Date: April 14, 2017

6.2	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 43 Ratings

USER RATING DISTRIBUTION

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Review this movie

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Please sign in or create an account before writing a review.

Check box if your review contains spoilers

0 characters (5000 max)

User Reviews

User score By date Most helpful

SpangleMay 7, 2017

Distance, verbose, and complex, A Quiet Passion is the cinematic version of its subject's poetry. Elusive in definition due to both its complexity and a to-the-grave reliance upon a mental thesaurus, A Quiet Passion is a film that activelyDistance, verbose, and complex, A Quiet Passion is the cinematic version of its subject's poetry. Elusive in definition due to both its complexity and a to-the-grave reliance upon a mental thesaurus, A Quiet Passion is a film that actively rejects audience understanding in the name of honoring the brilliance of its protagonist. However, by never letting us in to understand her plight - one certainly driven out typical artist's plight, in which their work is never appreciated during their own life, to the point that they wonder if their life's passion was worthwhile or not - from her point of view, A Quiet Passion winds up being far too subtle and lacking in clarity with regard to how one should feel about Emily Dickinson (Cynthia Nixon) at the end of the film. On one hand, she is a brilliant writer, even if well beyond my own comprehension. Yet, on the other hand, she was certainly quite self-absorbed and assured that she was better than those around her, even if their supposed faults were also her own. By the end, A Quiet Passion is a handsomely crafted film that simply lacks enough clarity and comprehensibility to truly become an excellent film.

Verbosely written with the script relying heavily upon a bevy of SAT words, A Quiet Passion borders on pretension in how it consistently over-complicates its story with its reliance upon complex language. At times, the film can lose track of even itself with how many words it tries to pull out of the thesaurus, all in the name of communicating the extensive vocabulary possessed by Dickinson. Fortunately, Cynthia Nixon often brings this back to Earth in a terrific performance. Displaying Dickinson's sharp, if dry, wit and ability to tear down on an opponent in verbal combat, the film's writing uses the dictionary quite nicely in those moments, but can otherwise force the rest of the film into being quite the slog. No matter how hard I tried to understand it all, the film always seemed to be attempting to become more-and-more complicated to the detriment of the overall product. It defied understanding and actively sought to complicate its rather straight-forward adherence to biopic formula.

This adherence to biopic formula is further demonstrated in the film's brevity. Issues arise and quickly fall into the backdrop in the name of telling her entire story. Scenes of the aunt with the family play in isolation, the Civil War is thrown in with mention of various battles and their casualties, the parents come and go, Emily's illness is hinted at and then results in her death, but it never really all comes together into a cohesive product. It is quite pleasant to watch with how exquisitely shot it all is, but it feels more like a highlight reel of Dickinson's life than an honest attempt to teach us about her and her work. Compared to other recent biopics such as Jackie which pick a point in time or two to base its storytelling around and, as a result, are given the space to develop its central character and create a base level of understanding that person and their life as a whole, A Quiet Passion never really captures Dickinson. It just tosses in moments from her life with Davies exacerbates moments with long-takes in an attempt to try and express the unspoken depth of the film. In the end, it winds up just feeling rather hollow.

The film's storytelling prowess is only worsened by the awkward inclusion of Dickinson's poetry. Narrated by Nixon as Dickinson writes or simply as she does something, the moments never really flow into the rest of the film. Instead, it feels like an overall diversion that never really works. While the poetry is beautiful - even if similarly elusive as the film itself - it simply does not work into the film as smoothly as it could and, as a result, the film's abbreviated approach to her life is met with a fractured approach to storytelling that lacks flaw and is far rockier than one would have expected when opting to watch the film.

However, though Dickinson's characterization is increasingly elusive and distant, A Quiet Passion's moments of developing her are well-taken with Davies really shining a light on her, even if it not really positive. Born in a time where women were expected to be docile and unquestioning, she was a powerful feminist voice arguing for equality. Citing that as her reasoning for not wanting to marry - equality - Dickinson is mostly a recluse. As her sister Vinnie (Jennifer Ehle) warns her in beginning, we often become what we do not want to become. For Emily, she does not want to become enslaved to another, but mostly does not want to become her mother. Long suffering, prone to crying, and a hermit, her mother is somebody she loves, but wishes to never become. Unfortunately, by the end of the film, it is clear that her own pretension has relegated her to a life of isolation like that of her mother. For Vinnie, this means she must be a doting sister at the beck and call of her sister, out of love.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

All this user's reviews

LaTijeraJan 1, 2018

Plays stiff and stuffy like an old black and white, almost as if it was shot to be some theater caricature. Review urbanmagic's zero score is a tad too low though; has a few decent moments but those often seem incongruous to neighboringPlays stiff and stuffy like an old black and white, almost as if it was shot to be some theater caricature. Review urbanmagic's zero score is a tad too low though; has a few decent moments but those often seem incongruous to neighboring scenes and even some characters within the very scene, as if they were cast into in completely different genres.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

All this user's reviews