However fanciful its portrait of the artist as a young woman, it’s very effective

The New York Times discusses the wildly varying films by women about women shown at TIFF 2022.

That was the case even when the movies didn’t entirely work or felt off the mark. I can’t vouch for the historical accuracy of “Emily,” a moving, sexually charged drama about Emily Brontë directed by the actress Frances O’Connor. Certainly I never heard about some of the wilder things that this Emily (an excellent Emma Mackey) does throughout her tumultuous, tragically abbreviated, dramatically inflected life. Even so, with its performances, its unabashed romanticism and visual choices — landscapes, textures, gleaming light and bodies — the movie persuasively opens up an artistic consciousness, showing how Brontë became the writer that she did. However fanciful its portrait of the artist as a young woman, it’s very effective. (Manohla Dargis)

Collider has interviewed the cast of Emily.

How does Mackey go about selecting projects in general, and what made Emily stand out? Here’s what she said:

“There wasn't a list of requirements necessarily that I look for, but what was so great about Emily is it was the right time for that kind of project, and I was really excited about working with a literary figure, so to speak. And it just felt like there was a lot to do. There was a lot to get our teeth stuck into, you know what I mean? It felt like a complete thing. There was a whole range of things to do and a palette of colors to explore. It felt like a whole piece to do so that was really exciting. And then yeah, I've been very lucky to do different things, but it's always scripts. The same with Emily, is you read the script and you have an instinct about it and you kind of just follow that.”

Sure enough, Mackey’s instincts were on-point with Emily, which boasts a beautifully complex and poignant narrative. There are a number of key contributors to shaping Emily’s journey in the film, but one of the most impactful of the bunch is Emily’s relationship with her sisters. While discussing key qualities of the Emily and Charlotte connection, Dowling noted that their love for one another is important, but also explained:

“There was very much a sense of Emily being this kind of rebel or this difficult character, [that] was something Charlotte found very difficult because she was much more concerned about how other people saw her whereas Emily just didn't care. She was just fine with being a weirdo. [Laughs] So it was kind of that thing of being able to balance the kind of love and care and the protectiveness with the judgment and the frustration.” (Perri Nemiroff)

Los lunes seriéfilos (Spain) also features the film.

Clarín (Argentina) has writer Mariana Enríquez mention Emily Brontë as one of her influences while Far Out Magazine lists the favourite books of several rock stars: Patti Smith mentions Villette as one of her favourite books and Stevie Nicks mentions both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.