Written and directed by Terence Davies, this film brings out several key points in the life of the great American poet Emily Dickinson: her growing reclusiveness, the fact she dressed in white, the small number of poems she published (in fact she wrote some 1800), her admiration for the Brontës and the major illness she contracted. In one comic scene, she scolds the local newspaper editor for changing her punctuation. This also reflects a key point because her poems are, curiously, full of capitalised initial letters and dashes.
Sadly, though, I think the film's dialogue lets it down. There are a number of epigrams which sound like a pastiche of Oscar Wilde, e.g. (quotations aren't all verbatim) 'Virtue is vice in disguise', 'Admiration is another name for envy', 'Envy is another name for admiration' and 'Contempt breeds familiarity'. Such self-conscious quips are rather distracting, except, I would say, from Dickinson's Aunt Elizabeth.
Despite its title, the film isn't exactly quiet. The characters are very talkative and Dickinson seems to be confined to her room only by her illness. Her physical deterioration is, however, really terrifying; I'd even say it's the strongest part of the film. Another strength lies in the poems that are read in voice-over. Though there aren't many, they do include 'This World is Not Conclusion', which distils her profound sense of the mystery of existence. Expressing this in the film, she displays an unorthodox view of religion which scandalises her family.
Cynthia Nixon sustains the role of Dickinson quite impressively, but Jennifer Ehle seems to me to have more charm as her sister Lavinia ('Vinny'). As Aunt Elizabeth, Annette Badland almost steals the show. It's just a pity that she's only on for a short time near the beginning.
