Fans of the period drama genre will be disappointed to hear Netflix is planning on pulling Emily, a film chronicling the life of 19th-century novelist Emily Brontë. The streaming giant revealed its plans to remove the partly fictionalised drama starring Sex Education's Emma Mackey and Line of Duty's Adrian Dunbar in the latter half of October this year. According to reports, the film will no longer be available to watch from 22 October, just six months after it was initially added to the service's catalogue.
What is Emily about?
First released in 2022, Emily was written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Frances O'Connor. It boasted a stellar lineup of stars that included Emma, Adrian, Gemma Jones, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead, and Alexandra Dowling. The plot followed the life of Brontë, in particular, her battle with grief after the death of her mother and her romance with William Weightman, on which she is thought to have based her iconic, gothic novel Wuthering Heights.
The film's synopsis reads: "In this semi-fictional account, Emily Brontë desires personal and artistic freedom but struggles within the boundaries of her family and society. She finds a way to channel her creative ability into writing a novel."
© Everett/ShutterstockWhat have the critics said about Emily?
Despite its upcoming slash from Netflix, the original reviews of Emily were extremely positive, with many offering the period drama four out of five stars. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an impressive 87% to this day, a score considered to be high amongst the site's standards. Critics dubbed it "spellbinding", saying, "Frances O’Connor has crafted a beautiful and spellbinding film with Emily that takes into account both the known facets of Emily Brontë’s personality and the unknown ones that were likely present because she was human".
© Everett/ShutterstockElsewhere, The Guardian decided the film was "a sensitive and passionate portrait of the author". It continued: "It’s also a confident directorial debut for O’Connor… and in turn makes a period piece stripped of the pageantry and stateliness typical of the genre." IndieWire called it "ravishing" while Digital Spy noted Emma and Oliver's "magnetic" chemistry on-screen and said the film captured "both Emily's intensity and ferocity".
