Chamber Pieces

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY (B) - Molly Shannon, as Emily Dickinson, is a delight, as always, especially with Susan Ziegler by her side as Susan, Dickinson's sister-in-law and lover. Writer-director Madeleinie Olnek seeks to subvert history by dragging the famously reclusive poet out of her boudoir and into the world as a lustful, talented poet who actually sought acclaim as much as solitude.

Olnek starts out rickety, with some confusing time jumps. But she finally settles on Dickinson approaching middle age and trysting with her longtime friend and now brother's wife, Susan. Olnek's technique, mixing dry humor with touching visual scripting of Dickinson's poetry, is sneaky here. She frames the narrative through the eyes of Mabel Todd (a delightful Amy Seimetz from "Upstream Color"), a local Amherst busybody who is the first to sketch the biography of Dickinson, an apparently misguided perception of the poet as a humorless hermit who hid her poetry from the world (even though Dickinson managed to get published in newspapers here and there).

By the movie's second half, it is clear that Olnek is puncturing what she considers to be a myth. It matters not which biographer is more accurate. What matters is the fun Olnek has with her characters (including Emily's loopy siblings) and with her rewriting of history, whether serious or not. And, of course, the poetry is as moving as ever.

Points off for some cheap production. I'm used to characters on TV and in movies sipping from empty cups, but here you get an over-the-shoulder shot that reveals a teacup clearly dry as a bone. That's unforgivable, even on a skinflint budget.

THE SISTERS (A-minus) (2006) - A strong cast bangs home a sterling screenplay about feuding sisters and family secrets, all based on Anton Chekhov's play "The Three Sisters." Maria Bello gives perhaps the performance of her career as Marcia, the alpha female among the Prior sisters, born and raised by a brutish father in academic aristocracy in the snooty northeast. She sets the bar for Mary Stuart Masterson as Olga, a prim, uptight academic with a secret she keeps, and Erika Christens

on as Irene, the baby of the family with problems of her own.

Most scenes in this stagy production by journeyman director Arthur Allan Seidelman take place in the tony faculty lounge of the unnamed college, where, conveniently, only the main characters hang out. They include Irene's drab fiance David (Chris O'Donnell); his rival for Irene's affections; Gary (a hammy Eric McCormack; the wise and witty Dr. Chebrin (a voracious Rip Torn), who loves nothing more than to read the daily newspaper's true-crime dispatches; and the Prior brother, Andrew (a sharp Allessandro Nivola), who brings in his floozy fiancee, Nancy, played with gum-snapping verve by Elizabeth Banks.

Throw them together and let simmer. The poison in this mix is the dashing Vincent (Tony Goldwyn), a former colleague of Prior pater who knew the women as girls and can't hide his desire for Bello's Marcia, even though they both are married. This chamber drama (not without its share of dark, cutting comedy) would not work at all if not for the seething screenplay by Richard Alfieri (who has since written only one other film, also with Seidelman).

Alfieri originally wrote this for the stage, and Seidelman and his cast don't bother making many concessions to the transitions to the screen, and that staginess is actually a plus here. "The Sisters" has a classic feel, but with modern snippets of putdowns and recriminations. And Bello -- sexy and brooding and vicious -- takes it the the next level.

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