Emily Dickinson might be famous for living as a ghost -- dressed in white, shut in her bedroom -- but she comes to life in A Quiet Passion as infinitely complicated.
It's a singular life, marred by the fact that Dickinson didn't live to enjoy the admiration her poems now attract. And I can't think of another director with the sensibility to put it on screen.
Nixon delivers a masterful performance, giving us a heroine who can't cease digging herself into ever deeper holes. She's never out of step with the film's graceful pace and narrative development.
