This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

The Worst Film Ever

Excellent, a Must See

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

After having seen several of Terrence Davies' movies, such as the small gems "The Long Day Closes," and "Of Time and the City," I was looking forward to seeing what he would do with a film of broader scope and bigger budget. In "A Quiet Passion" I see many of the qualities I liked in the smaller films, but cannot fully embrace the new movie.One positive is the cinematography. The timeframe for this biography of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) places it prior to the time that electric lighting was common, so all of the interior shots at night are filmed with candlelight, lamps, or fireplace fires. This is done extremely well and adds much warmth. One remarkable scene is a full, slow 360 degree pan around a sitting room at night that begins with Emily sitting in a chair and ending with her. That scene really sets the ambience for the Dickinson's home life. Another scene has, instead of an informational card "Twenty years later," the main characters age in place in closeups. Some of the exterior filming was done at the Emily Dickinson Museum. The exterior cinematography is lush, colorful, and pleasing to the eye--Monet would appreciate it.Another positive is the care that was taken with the period detail. The costuming in particular adds to the authenticity of the feel.On a less positive note I found the dialog to be stilted. I know the dialog in the given era was probably pretty stiff, but the characters in this movie often spoke in epigrams and bromides rather than normal conversation. Some examples:Poems are my solace for the eternity which surrounds us all.Surely vice is only virtue in disguise.I prefer to remain silent. That way a prejudice doesn't seem like an opinion.Going to church is like going to Boston. You only enjoy it after you've gotten home.Cherish you ignorance. You never know when you will need it.Emily: Familiarity, as they say, breeds contempt. Sister Vinnie replies: Perhaps contempt breeds familiarity. I'm not even sure what Vinnie's reply even means, but it is an example of how the script puts cleverness over naturalness.Normally for a movie that engages me enough to watch it a second time my valuation goes up on second viewing. In this case my regard went down a bit. I was less impressed with the acting. I felt that Cynthia Nixon was not quite up to the task and I kept wondering how a better actress would have handled the role. Dickinson was not a particularly warm and lovable person (as presented), but Nixon did not get me involved to where I could identify with her struggles on an emotional level. Dickinson's descent into isolation and bitterness seemed to be a protective reaction to her being hurt by the loss of family and friends--if you don't have close relationships you can't be hurt by them. Duncan Duff was a dud as Emily's brother. The only actor that impressed me was Keith Carradine as Emily's father.Nixon reads some of Dickinson's poetry at points where the poems might appropriately apply to the situation at hand. On first viewing I did not fully digest the poems, but was able to better appreciate them on second viewing. It was a good decision to include recitations of Dickinson's poetry to see why she has the reputation she has. There is no lacking of Dickinson's poetry on the web.In one scene it was revealed that there were at least three servants in the household, but there was not much indication as to how these people entered into the day-to-day activities of the family. Emily's father and brother were lawyers, but there was no more significance made of that rather than a mere mention of it. I would like to have seen more information on how this rather upscale family interacted with the world outside the home. The musical score was unobtrusive, but added emotional support. It was well chosen in keeping with the 19th century time period. There were a couple of scenes that featured piano playing and I liked the lack of pretense that the actors were actually playing.

It is a movie that has all the points to be a good movie, however, does not become a good movie, because none of those points gets to be well finished. It is also a film, too arrogant, that uses too many fancy phrases which makes me leave the film. I do not think that to look like an intellectual, you have to use that language.The tempo of the movie is too slow. It was not necessary and causes the viewer to be bored. He tries to make a poetic and adult film and abuses that time too many times.There is a moment when he takes the pictures, which is very good. It is a way to raise the aging of the family, but equally, to have made a photo would have been enough, it is not necessary to take photos of all, since you have already told and you are sleeping to the viewer.Cynthia Nixon, plays a formidable role, gets you to believe everything that happens to her, even illness and that is very difficult. The bad thing and I imagine that it will be, because its real personage was like this, is that being a woman so feminist that it looked for the freedom in his life and the equality with the men, thing of admiring, I do not understand why it was constantly like the others lived their life. As the movie progresses, I get worse and worse and that at first, I was completely in agreement with her. The other actors are formidable too, is the strength of this film. Even Keith Carradine and that's hard to believe in the wig they have put.The make-up and the costumes are very good except the father, who gets me much of the film.The constant voice-over of the poems is something else that I do not like at all. They make the movie slower and I do not think they are necessary.The photograph, which is almost always impressive, I think is very confused, I explain, I think this film is extremely sad, other than the director can make it cold for the viewer or at least distant and deserved a sad and cold picture and however do not marvel with a warm and friendly photograph.The manager, I think he is wrong in everything. The planes are ugly, they are all badly composed, the camera movements are empty. It seems that the actors went to shoot alone because it is a succession of close-ups, as if they were alone and that gets me a lot of the film. In addition he is wrong in the tempo and the length of the film that is too long.Of course the final sequence, I think is left, we have already learned what has happened. And above it has a whitish and warm photograph, at that moment.

although most of the reviews are the same, I must point out the performance by Cynthia Nixon, as Emily Dickenson. it's spell binding and frightening at the same time. ms. Nixon is at the top of her game here and provides us with a character only bette davis could have delivered in the day. see this film for her. otherwise, it's hard going and quite down. not much reason to plunk down big bucks at the box office.

Worst movie I have seen in a long time. I thought it was poorly acted and very tedious. Although it may seem to be an accurate portrayal of Emily Dickinson, for me that is it's only positive point. I did not finish the movie because I found it to arduous a task to endure any longer.