Emily Brontë (Emma Mackey) is asked on her deathbed by her sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) how she was able to write Wuthering Heights resulting in us seeing the stories of heart break and happiness that resulted in the inspiration for the literary classic. 

Emily Brontë is portrayed here as a fiercely intelligent woman keen on thinking for herself and challenging the status quo whilst at the same time being desperately shy and unable to integrate with wider society. We see a number of key relationships that effected her greatly. Her father Patrick (Adrian Dunbar) was a curate at the local church who was always far more doting to his son Branwell (Fionn Whitehead) and eldest daughter Charlotte. Her sister Charlotte loved her but was fiercely competitive with her to be the most successful. Her brother Branwell and her shared a mischievous and loving relationship that was marred by his addiction to various substances. Whilst another curate at the church by the name of Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) offered her the sort of doomed romance that might seem so familiar to readers of her only novel. 

In the main these stories are genuinely fascinating and intriguing. But there are occasional lulls in momentum sometimes as the film shifts between each thread. Luckily the film has a trump card up its sleeve in the terrific performance from Emma Mackey who for the moment at least is most famous for the Netflix series Sex Education. Mackey is often able to keep your interest just by purely being on screen and she makes the perfect leading actor for a character whose life inspired the most famous gothic romance of all time. 

Debutant writer/director Frances O’Connor seems to have made an excellent choice transitioning to her new roles after an acting career that has spanned the last thirty years. There is an awful lot of promise here that will make any sophomore follow up of great interest.