Have you ever seen Kirk's movie on Gilmore Girls? This movie reminds me of that movie. (minus the breakdancing) It goes from one short scene of someone saying something snarky, to the next scene of someone saying something snarky. Everyone says something profound, but it does not seem to string together to form any kind of story. The characters never seem to form any kind of character and definitely do not have any sort of relationship with each other. Completely overacted, reminding me a bit of a group of high schoolers doing Shakespeare. Save your time!

The kind of film Davies excels at. He effectively demystifies Dickinson's life (having a truly magnificent cast helps) while incorporating her poetry thematically. Also, despite the film's clear obsession with death the screenplay has a lot more wit and humor than you'd expect.

Spoilers within: Thank a god or the stars that she had her writing as an outlet, or she might have pulled the plug early, maybe when she was the only one in school who didn't profess a love of Christ and/or a fear of hell. Telling the truth is a lonely place, but she rarely could compromise that feature of her character, which eventually led to a sort of nonreligious "dark night of the soul" that she felt so intensely, though she did believe in God. In the end, this piece is a paean to not only Emily's gift for writing poetry but to places that the human spirit can go and the significant contributions people can make to civilization if they can unleash their big talent and skill on the world. Is it self-expression or sharing? Surely both in Emily's case. She had to write and wanted it published, which took some time. And this was about words, as the wit and high-minded, but highly precise, use of language throughout this by her and her family and their small circle was fun to watch; the light, witty parrying she and sister Vinnie had with Miss Buffam was wonderful. Emily stumped herself on why she did hurtful things, didn't know why, she told Vinnie. She played with words when she was chiding brother Austin for adultery, saying he was using "poetic licentiousness." Starved for love, but afraid of the closeness she might have with any man, she had no beaus and seemed most frightened of losing the autonomy she insisted on in an era when women were not the equal of men in society, so she was ahead of her time on this. I didn't know much about her going into this movie, but felt I learned at least the broad strokes. Like Vincent van Gogh, who "suffered for his sanity," she didn't see the popularity of her work explode into fame. Cynthia's catlike I' m not sure why I do what I do had great counterpoint from real pro Jennifer's more open, more canine, more outgoing and kind Vinnie. And this was the story of a really close family, which felt big tearful holes in the family when demanding Dad passed and melancholic Mom died, then Emily. Emma played young Emily well, too, and Catherine Bailey had the most fun role as Buffam. Very impressive outing by Davies, and maybe Cynthia's finest work, and Jennifer also carried many scenes. The title is ironic, as her passion was not quiet, but screaming inside her, if generically fettered by patriarchal expectations that sent her to night writing solitude. She fled the morals, the mores, the culture by fleeing them all the way into her room. And, somehow that made us all the beneficiaries of her poetic genius. What a universe.

Somewhat slow-moving, but it was trying to depict home life, which can be slow. I still feel like I don't know what kind of person Emily Dickinson was. Certainly idealistic, moral, always thinking, but she was also offensive (in the film). Too bad for her she wasn't recognized in her lifetime....it made her bitter.

A marvelous meditation on Emily Dickinson, a labor of love. Perhaps people who are not literature or poetry lovers will grasp the beauty and candor of this film. It honors so much of her spirit.

Stilted performances do not do justice to the story of a phenomenal if restrained poetess. The character interactions seem forced and the dialogue unnatural.

Really unwatchable. I got no sense of the life force that must have animated her poetry, it just all seemed depressing. I canâ(TM)t believe this was an accurate portrayal of the poetâ(TM)s life. Iâ(TM)m guessing the director was having some kind of crisis personally?

The first thing I noticed about this biopic of Emily Dickinson by director Terence Davies is the remarkable use of light (kudos to cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister). The 19th century sets are lit as if by candle or firelight or with natural light streaming in from the windows. The sets and costumes certainly evoke the time and place - as do the hairstyles (Keith Carradine is nearly unrecognisable in his beard and sideburns). The plot starts with young Emily's non-traditional home life, supported by parents who allow her to resist Christian evangelizing and to voice her own thoughts alongside a sister, Vinnie, and a brother, Austin, raised similarly. Emily begins writing poetry and even has a poem published, anonymously. Then, with a spooky use of morphing to age the characters in the onscreen daguerreotypes, we see the children as young adults, moving into relationships and careers. Emily is now played by Cynthia Nixon (yes, she who just ran for New York State governor in the recent primary). Supported by her friend, Vryling Buffam, Emily continues to speak truth to power and to advocate proto-feminist views. However, she eventually becomes embittered and melancholy, a reclusive eccentric dressed all in white, spurning potential suitors even as she seems lonely. The success she seeks through her poetry does not materialise. On the soundtrack, we hear her poems in voiceover ("Because I could not stop for Death" is the one that stands out as familiar to me, but my relationship to poetry is now a distant one, although it is refreshing to take the time to drink deep of words, even ironically through film). Ultimately, then, the trajectory for Emily and the film is painfully downward, observed by Terence Davies quietly but with passion. Looking at his filmography shows that I seem to have missed several recent Davies films -- but I highly recommend Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992), his meditative reveries about his own youth in England. A Quiet Passion doesn't measure up to these earlier films but it does contain many special moments (especially in the camerawork); however, casual viewers should be prepared for a "slow" film.

Worst movie I saw in theatres all year. What a piece of trash. How it has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes I will never understand. It is so poorly framed. Whole scenes consist entirely of shot-reverse shot closeups with no establishing shot. It's impossible to tell how close characters are. They could be near enough to touch, or across a table. It's incredibly confusing. There's one scene in particular where I thought two characters were on opposite sides of a room and then one reaches out to the other and gets their hand slapped away. Very disorienting. Not to mention boring. Who had the bright idea to make a movie about Emily Dickinson that barely mentions her poetry? If film is life with all the boring bits cut out, then this is feels like a film where where they put all the scenes that they cut from the actual movie. What a slog. I hated Jennifer Ehle so much. Everyone in this movie has "witty" banter, but she plays it up like she's incredibly clever. But her dialogue doesn't sound any different than anyone else so she just comes across as weirdly smug. Like not that the character is smug, like the actor is smug. Like she thought she was the 19th century Lorelai Gilmore. Fuck off. I felt a genuine sense of relief when Dickinson dies at the end of the film, because that meant it was almost over. Not a good way to end a movie. Cynthia Nixon does an alright job though, all things considered. This movie is awful.

I admire the craftmanship but this film is a slow slog of talking heads that only the most patient of viewers will find entertainment value in.

A beautifully made, finely acted biographical movie about the great poet Emily Dickinson. Cynthia Nixon's portral of Dickinson is a masterclass.

Excruciatingly slow, particularly the last third. Cynthia Nixon is an excellent actor but this movie did not have any of the quick wit or playfulness that I would have expected from a Dickinson film. I felt like I was taking crazy pills when I saw the near-universal praise for this movie. Maybe if you are a film buff who loves 3-hour slow-paced melancholy dramas you will like it, but I found it utterly pretentious and unenjoyable.

I come to a Davies movie, expecting to see a Davies movie, but what I got is closer to a Rivette movie - which is pleasing, but I'm still trying to deal with the taste of cognitive dissonance afterwards.

This starts promising but then after the badass face morph scene (no really) it just dissolves into what feels feels like the same bickering argument and follow up apology over and over and over for one and a half hours. Plus there's some straight up terrible acting here, like awful and unnatural line readings and stilted dialogue... not acceptable for a movie about a poet. Cynthia Nixon does a great job at least... Jennifer Ehle is adorable. and that's sort of about it. If you wanna hear Emily Dickinson drop some sick burns, this is it. Everybody dies and everybody cries and life is cruel, the end. Whatever. I couldn't muster up any emotions for anybody in this heavily color corrected and darkly lit film. Unrelated to this movie, I know the epilepsy thing is a genuine possibility but I have a hard time believing it. Like crippling depression is enough, man. I KNOW its not a CHOICE either WAY but I'm just SAYIN' OK????

A pesar de ser un biopic sobre una poetisa que nunca saliò de su casa no es para nada aburrido.

Over-acted, stilted, "British-esque" performance. None of the true, witty, playful moments you'd expect from Emily herself- who was a grounded, nature-loving, old soul. When you put this full, wholesome character into a flat, masked, empty box, you get an empty, flat, boring movie.

A Quiet Passion: Quite terrible. This biopic of iconic American poet Emily Dickinson stars Cynthia Nixon as the celebrated, death-obsessed recluse whose popularity soared after her own death. Nixon is on point as the sad sack artist, and the stilted language, costume and set design do accurately capture the mood of the mid-to-late 1800s, but director Terence Davies, with his lingering camera shots and awkward silences, presents a one-dimensional portrait of Dickinson that is as pretentious as it is boring. True Dickinson fans will loathe this film. Non-fans will loathe themselves for wasting time watching it. D- For more reviews visit The Reelness @theREALreelness at Facebook and Twitter.

This movie was interesting til the third act. I'll give it that much. Then it became a 'napper'. So dozed off a bit. Maybe it was a reflection of Emily Dickinson's autobiography that evenually got too boring.

Being a biopic, it justifies! But not everybody thinks that way! I don't know what did everybody expected from it, but I thought it was good. It is a biopic and you can't anticipate a film to alter for your comfort. Not all the films based on the real person are one hundred per cent exact depiction. Recreation is impossible, but getting somewhere close to it what this film did like many others. Because you won't able to cover thousands of hours of a person's life in just 120 minutes. The director did his part finely and so the actors. Periodic flick means we expect fancy costumes. This film had started like one, but faded away quickly, once the story started to get serious. After graduating from the school, the young Emily Dickinson decides to write poetries and she succeeds too. But she's not a person of god as her family or the society she's living in. Then she meets another young woman like her. Soon everybody around her starts to get disappear as the phase of life moving on, so she loses all the company. How her rest of the life happens were revealed on the remaining part. Despite both the versions of Emily were good, it also became the weakness of the film. They should have went for one actor with make- up option. I liked first half and the second half, but it looked two different films with two different actors. Setting in the 19th century, the struggles of women is what it highlighted. Most of the film took place in the Emily's house. Being a true story, it is worthy film. But not everybody would enjoy it. Because that's not how Emily Dickinson lived. I meant to get cheers from the today's audience for her film. 7/10

Very little is quiet in Terence Davies' A Quiet Passion. The young Emily Dickinson, played by Emma Bell, spends her time in the company of her family and walking the Amherst gardens with friends and neighbors. Clever repartee and smarting retorts characterize these engagements, with witticisms volleyed back and forth at such speed it would make Whit Stillman blush. Still, beneath all this pedantry trembles something even louder. Davies teases the skulking menace during a typical evening at the Dickinson home. The young Emily looks up from her reading, a flash of epiphany settling across her face. She recites in voice-over: The Heart asks Pleasure -- first -- And then -- Excuse from Pain -- And then -- those little Anodynes That deaden suffering -- And then -- to go to sleep -- And then -- if it should be The will of its Inquisitor The privilege to die - Under her words, the camera takes a slow turn around the candlelit room: an aunt dozing, a father reading, a sister sewing, a mother staring distractedly at the fire. In full rotation, the camera comes back to rest on Dickinson's face, aghast at the abyss she has just borne witness to. In the previous scene, she exclaims, "Poems are my solace for the eternity which surrounds us all." At this darkened hour, she has glimpsed that eternity hunting the paltry anodynes of the drawing room, the Inquisitor taking its inventory. Her mother, in ignorance, breaks Emily from her horror and asks her to entertain with "one of the old hymn-tunes" on the piano. Emily acquiesces. Eventually, though, all this agreeableness ends, and the subterranean trembling of the first half of the film turns to the unclositered rage and sorrow of the latter portions. Upon losing friends and family members in quick succession, Dickinson, played in older age by Cynthia Nixon, forsakes all such passing pleasures the world of society has to offer, not the least so because they have seemed to pass on her. Receiving as little attention from suitors as her poems receive from publishers, Dickinson internalizes rejection in both person and soul. Soon the body works its own rejection, debilitating her with seizures brought on by Bright's disease. In the solitude of her seclusion and suffering, the stuff of her poetry, that thin veil between living and eternity takes hold of the screen. The passion stalks from a source outside, elsewhere to the fragile humanity at stake. Until finally, it stops for her.