Historical, romantic-comedy film Wild Nights with Emily directed and written by Madeleine Olnek stars Molly Shannon as Emily Dickinson, a historically famous poet, and Amy Seimetz as Susan Ziegler, Emily's friend and lover. The film dedicates it's one and a half hour runtime to exploring the flipping, romantic relationship between Emily and Susan throughout their years alongside an external narration given by editor Mabel Todd.
Though the film is listed as a comedy, it falls short in many instances in which it attempts to be humorous, with the joke either being drawn out too long or with little build up besides relying on tropes, such as when Judge Otis falls asleep during his literature conversation with Emily. From the first instance we meet him, his initial character is dominated solely by comical cliches; he fails to remember things well and accurately hear what Emily says to him, leading her to speak louder and constantly ensure he is paying attention to her. The scene feels drawn out far too long for a joke without any other context, and such awkward lengths during comical moments can be seen throughout the movie that just don't land as well as hoped.
However, with that being said, the film does have instances of shorter, punctual jokes that do give rise to humor, such as when Austin asks his father if there is mail for him when Emily receives her letters only to be promptly shut down with a simple and sharp "No" before he leaves the scene. A majority of the film's comical strength tends to come from these sorts of jokes, but unfortunately, they are few and far between other stilted attempts.
That note brings me to my current question: why a romantic comedy? The flat comedy beside, the aspect of painting the relationship between Emily and Susan with comical moments (many of which are not even between the two women but between them and a secondary character) feels sort of bizarre considering the heartfelt, tender content of the real poems from Emily to Susan. In fact, I would argue that the moments of sincerity between Emily and Susan act as the main point of the movie, rather than the humorous. I found myself wanting to see more of their relationship, especially in their youth, so that their falling out as adults would strike an emotional chord much harder and make me feel for these two women and characters. The scene of both Emily and Susan walking through the woods was especially well done, in my opinion, as the juxtaposing colors between Emily (wearing black) and Susan (wearing orange, like the autumn environment around her) paints and foreshadows the space between the two women-how Emily differs from the norm while Susan adheres to it. I'd love if more of that concept was explored in the context of their relationship, since I feel as though Emily Dickinson's feelings towards Susan Ziegler are less discussed and acknowledged compared to the entirety of her poetic career.
With that being said, it's a bit disappointing that their relationship was not developed in the film, as that aspect seemed to share the efforts put into writing the comedy and timeline-the timeline of the movie, specifically, seems to jump wildly between Mabel's narration to the crowd versus teenager Emily and Susan as well as adult Emily and Susan. It made the sequence of events more complex than I feel it needed to be, and makes me wonder what the reasoning behind including Mabel's narration was. If anything, Mabel's narration took away from the immersion of following Emily and Susan through their life.
Overall, Wild Nights with Emily does give audiences a glimpse into the secret and silenced relationship between Emily Dickison and Susan Ziegler. I feel as though the film was trying to tackle the challenging ordeal of Emily Dickison as both lover and poet alongside tones that didn't unite the story as well as intended. There was a lot of potential, but sadly the execution was not at the same level.
Though the film is listed as a comedy, it falls short in many instances in which it attempts to be humorous, with the joke either being drawn out too long or with little build up besides relying on tropes, such as when Judge Otis falls asleep during his literature conversation with Emily. From the first instance we meet him, his initial character is dominated solely by comical cliches; he fails to remember things well and accurately hear what Emily says to him, leading her to speak louder and constantly ensure he is paying attention to her. The scene feels drawn out far too long for a joke without any other context, and such awkward lengths during comical moments can be seen throughout the movie that just don't land as well as hoped.
However, with that being said, the film does have instances of shorter, punctual jokes that do give rise to humor, such as when Austin asks his father if there is mail for him when Emily receives her letters only to be promptly shut down with a simple and sharp "No" before he leaves the scene. A majority of the film's comical strength tends to come from these sorts of jokes, but unfortunately, they are few and far between other stilted attempts.
That note brings me to my current question: why a romantic comedy? The flat comedy beside, the aspect of painting the relationship between Emily and Susan with comical moments (many of which are not even between the two women but between them and a secondary character) feels sort of bizarre considering the heartfelt, tender content of the real poems from Emily to Susan. In fact, I would argue that the moments of sincerity between Emily and Susan act as the main point of the movie, rather than the humorous. I found myself wanting to see more of their relationship, especially in their youth, so that their falling out as adults would strike an emotional chord much harder and make me feel for these two women and characters. The scene of both Emily and Susan walking through the woods was especially well done, in my opinion, as the juxtaposing colors between Emily (wearing black) and Susan (wearing orange, like the autumn environment around her) paints and foreshadows the space between the two women-how Emily differs from the norm while Susan adheres to it. I'd love if more of that concept was explored in the context of their relationship, since I feel as though Emily Dickinson's feelings towards Susan Ziegler are less discussed and acknowledged compared to the entirety of her poetic career.
With that being said, it's a bit disappointing that their relationship was not developed in the film, as that aspect seemed to share the efforts put into writing the comedy and timeline-the timeline of the movie, specifically, seems to jump wildly between Mabel's narration to the crowd versus teenager Emily and Susan as well as adult Emily and Susan. It made the sequence of events more complex than I feel it needed to be, and makes me wonder what the reasoning behind including Mabel's narration was. If anything, Mabel's narration took away from the immersion of following Emily and Susan through their life.
Overall, Wild Nights with Emily does give audiences a glimpse into the secret and silenced relationship between Emily Dickison and Susan Ziegler. I feel as though the film was trying to tackle the challenging ordeal of Emily Dickison as both lover and poet alongside tones that didn't unite the story as well as intended. There was a lot of potential, but sadly the execution was not at the same level.