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WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY

"A Boring, Quirky PC Spin on Emily Dickinson"

What You Need To Know:

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY is a quirky comical drama about popular 19th Century poet Emily Dickinson. Played by SNL star Molly Shannon, Emily is born into an elite Massachusetts family in Amhurst. While other women seek husbands, Emily buries herself in writing and has one goal: to get her poetry published. She has no desire to marry a man because she’s infatuated with a woman. WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY focuses on Emily’s illicit love affair with Susan, her brother’s wife, and the steps she and Susan take to make sure their adulterous lesbian relationship is never discovered.

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY is an abhorrent movie for adults. The costumes and attention to detail in the locations are beautiful, but the storyline’s poorly developed. It’s told through a series of scenes compiled from the past, present and future. Every scene is drawn out. Emily’s poems are recited by unimportant characters while strange, clown-like piano music plays in the background. The characters react like pieces in a chess game with little emotion. WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY is boring and abhorrent, with an Anti-Christian, politically correct worldview.

Content:

(RoRoRo, PCPCPC, FeFeFe, HoHoHo, B, V, S, A, D, MM): Very strong Romantic, politically correct, feminist worldview promotes sin and deceit and depicts lesbianism as a strong act of bravery and boldness, but there are some moral elements sometimes extolling principles of justice and truthfulness and rebuking pride, envy, selfishness, and treating women unjustly

Foul Language:
No foul language

Violence:
No physical violence, war, or bloodshed, but couples argue and raise their voice in extreme disagreement during fights

Sex:
Strong and light sexual immorality includes passionate lesbian kissing, implied lesbian sex, images of women in bed together, woman cheats on her husband with another woman, and husband cheats on his wife and kisses another woman in public

Nudity:
No nudity

Alcohol Use:
Social drinking at parties

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
A few men smoke cigars at social parties; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:
Lying and some sexism against women but the sexism is rebuked.

More Detail:

In the quirky comical drama, WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, Molly Shannon plays the role of the popular poet, Emily Dickinson, showing her life from childhood to death, while highlighting a secret alleged relationship with another woman that remained hidden. WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY falls short of engaging, enlightening and entertaining the audience and has a very strong Romantic, politically correct feminist worldview that promotes homosexual sin and portrays all the male characters as weak.

In the opening scene, Emily and her long-term lover, Susan, give each other a kiss on the lips. They are probably 14-years-old, but their attraction and desire for one another is apparent at this young age. According to Scripture, perversity is a sin, and a warning to fellow Christians this movie is full of it. Although there is no nudity, passionate kissing between Emily and Susan make up a bulk of the scenes and is heavily glorified.

Flash forward a few years later when Susan gets engaged to Emily’s brother, Austin. Emily is devastated. Susan pulls her aside and tells her not to worry. She planned to marry Austin in order to ensure she would always be close to Emily, his sister. Austin and his beloved newlywed, Susan, move next door to Emily. Emily’s father encourages Emily to marry, but she has no interest in marriage and pours herself into her poetry. The movie regularly cuts into a scene to stop and share one of Dickinson’s 1,800 poems she wrote during her lifetime. However, Dickinson’s writings are not always recited by Emily. Sometimes, various other characters share her poetry. This takes away from the focus of the story, leading viewers to ask: Why is this character reciting Emily’s poetry?

Through the excessive use of voiceover and the bulk of the scenes being shot in one location, inside the home or outside the home, it’s clear the budget for WILD NIGHST WITH EMILY was slim. Yet, the story must go on! Time passes, and Susan has two children with her husband Austin, although she sneaks away daily to spend intimate time with Emily. Emily is depicted as a passionate, sex-loving woman, despite the fact history declares she was a recluse.

Eventually, Austin cheats on Susan with Mabel Todd, a young blonde lady in town. Susan is furious with her husband, but Emily doesn’t understand why? Aren’t they in love? Susan explains that her true pain comes from the pain her children will be forced to endure since Austin and Mabel are very open about their affair. This is one of the few scenes with heightened stakes in the movie, and perhaps the most interesting scene to watch since it makes the viewer wonder how does a woman feel when her husband cheats on her even though she’s already cheated on him with a woman? If Susan were truly in love with Emily, wouldn’t she not be this upset that her husband cheated on her? These questions are never answered. Emily comforts Susan with a big hug and invites her to cuddle in bed together.

After this scene, one of the only compelling ones in the whole movie, the plot shifts gears and focuses on Emily’s determination to get her poetry published. She meets a handful of male editors but is turned down by everyone. Alas, one of her poems is finally published in the paper, but the editor gives her poem a title, and Emily doesn’t want her poems to have titles. She’s furious her poem has been altered. She runs back to Susan, who comforts her and reminds her to stop being so picky and remember that one of her poems was published!

Emily eventually gets deathly sick and dies, but her poetry survives. In a strange turn of events, Mabel, the woman who had the affair with Susan’s husband, stumbles upon Emily’s poetry. She can’t stop reading them and makes it her mission to get them published, but before she does, she erases every poem addressed to Susan.

The movie ends on a series of facts explaining that a handful of Emily’s love poems were made out to Susan and claims that their illicit love affair did happen.

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY is an abhorrent movie for adults. The period piece costumes and attention to detail in the locations are beautiful to watch, but the storyline is poorly developed. The story is told through a series of scenes complied together from the past, present, and future in Emily’s life. The unusual way the story bounces around doesn’t stop there. The movie periodically halts to tell one of Emily’s classic poems by some random character in the story, like a neighbor. It’s lovely to be exposed to Emily’s poetry, but the way the movie goes about it is quite unusual. Her poems are revealed by unimportant characters while strange, clown-like piano music plays in the background. The movie reads more like a play on screen, but void of a much-needed intermission. Every scene is long and drawn out. The characters react like pieces in a chess game with little emotion as the narrator places them in scenes with Emily’s voiceovers.

Everything in this movie supports a feminist view point, highlighting a lesbian relationship and a strong female writer. Also, it casts poor, weak characters to portray all the men in Emily’s life. WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY ultimately falls short of engaging, enlightening, and entertaining the audience. Its politically correct feminist worldview promotes homosexual sin and evil. It is interesting to note that the movie says nothing about a series of reverential poems Dickinson wrote regularly throughout her life about Jesus Christ, called the Gospel poems.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


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