Is the Flannery O'Connor Biopic Worth Watching?

A short film review

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Ever since I heard that Ethan Hawke had written a biopic of Flannery O’Connor, and that he was directing the film starring his daughter, Maya Hawke, I’ve been excited and, in full disclosure, a little nervous.

O’Connor is one of my favorite writers. I first encountered her in a life-changing reading course on southern writers. My senior year of college, a handful of us asked Dr. Ralph C. Wood if he would teach us about O’Connor, Faulkner, and Walker Percy. He graciously agreed to meeting with us on Friday afternoons. We would have many novels and short stories to tackle. And every week we would give him a brief essay on what we were reading. He returned them to us riddled with corrections in red pen. Only in hindsight do I realize how remarkable it was for a scholar of his caliber to invest so much time in undergraduate students. We were fortunate indeed to be studying O’Connor with one of the foremost O’Connor scholars in the world. His passion for her work was contagious and I’ve adored her ever since.

Over the years I’ve read not only her short stories and novels but her essays and letters. I’ve taken little pilgrimages to her home in Milledgeville and her childhood home in Savannah. In short, I am a fan. So I was hesitant about this new film. What if they don’t understand her? What if they mess this up? When Ethan and Maya Hawke talked with Bishop Barron about the project, their interview was encouraging. They clearly love Flannery. (Is it too familiar to call her Flannery instead of O’Connor? I can’t help myself.) And they did their research. I was relieved.

When I was offered an early screener of the biopic I jumped at the chance. And reader, I was not disappointed. Wildcat is a beautiful film. It is strange like its subject. It is true to Flannery’s fiction and her Catholic faith. It refrains from Hollywood-izing her story. It is a triumph.

The film has an unusual structure that is at first a bit disorienting and which continues to be unsettling throughout the film. The narrative thread is about Flannery coming into her own as a writer while wrestling with the grief of a Lupus diagnosis and a return to Milledgeville where she would live out the rest of her days with the same illness that killed her father. But woven through are depictions of her short stories including “Revelation,” “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” “Parker’s Back,” and “Good Country People.” We see these stories played out in Flannery’s imagination and Maya Hawke and Laura Linney (who plays Flannery’s mother, Regina) also play characters in Flannery’s fiction. While this is an odd structure for a film, it is necessary. How can we get to know Flannery without inhabiting her fiction? And the disorienting and unsettling experience is true to the uncomfortable experience of reading her short stories. Much of the dialogue of the film is clearly drawn from Flannery’s letters and her prayer journal which lends an authenticity to her character’s voice.

The film also masterfully communicates Flannery’s struggles with her writing on both a practical and spiritual level. Almost no one “gets” it. Publishers are nonplussed. Readers are turned off. Her mother asks why she can’t just write things that people want to read. The film also presents a Flannery with a deep spiritual life of prayer and conversation with God. Her craft is her worship. One of the most powerful scenes in the film is when Flannery has had to return permanently to Milledgeville to be cared for by her mother—a fate that filled her with horror. A priest, played by Liam Neeson, is called to comfort her by her sick bed. Flannery unleashes all her deepest fears about her vocation as a writer, her sinful desire for greatness, and also about her spiritual calling now that she is going to be an invalid—all she has to offer anyone is her writing and people find her work scandalous. The priest encourages her that pouring herself into her writing is the way God has called her to love and sacrifice for others. It is her path to holiness and she must write honestly and leave the reception of her work up to the Holy Spirit. It’s a beautiful scene that seems drawn from her prayer journals.

Maya Hawke and Laura Linney are both fantastic in this film (although at times, their southern accents do not ring true). The relationship between Flannery and Regina is key. Regina loves Flannery but does not understand her. Like the educated daughters in her short stories who despise their mothers, Flannery struggled in her relationship with Regina. But unlike Hulga and Mary Grace in her fiction, Flannery sees that thinking she’s the smartest person in the room is not a trait to be celebrated but a flaw to fight against. It’s no accident that Maya Hawke plays both Hulga and Mary Grace in those short stories within Flannery’s imagination.

Which brings me to a final thought. The film does not shy away from the difficult racial issues explored in Flannery’s fiction or the racism of her southern world and family, but it generally distances those views from Flannery herself. By having Laura Linney play Regina and the racist women in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “Revelation,” the film presents Mrs. O’Connor as having prejudice that Flannery abhors and criticizes in her fiction. But I think the real Flannery was as hard on herself as she was on anyone else. Her fiction is deeply critical of the racism so prevalent in her era, but Flannery struggled to overcome that same sin in herself. This is why in her letters she once calls herself “Mrs. Turpin” (the racist woman in “Revelation”)—a self-aware indictment of her own flaws. An acknowledgment that Flannery herself was wrestling with the racism that saturated her environment, and yet saw that prejudice for the evil it was would have been more true to life.

But all in all, Wildcat is a film that does justice to Flannery’s work, her strangeness, and her deep Catholic faith. I’m delighted that Ethan Hawke crafted such an incredible film about such a complicated, odd, and extraordinary woman—a testament to his meticulous research and his passion for Flannery’s genius. Go see it and then tell me what you think.

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Speaking of Flannery….

The collection of essays about Catholic women novelists (including an essay from Dr. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell about Flannery O’Connor!) that I spent the past few months editing is available for pre-order.

You can order directly from Word on Fire, the publisher or from Amazon.

Last Call for Pilgrims!

On the fence about coming to Belgium and Germany with Fr. Harrison Ayre and my husband Daniel and I this summer? Now’s the last chance to sign up! 🇧🇪 🇩🇪

If you’re looking for a small group to travel with, daily Mass, beautiful cathedrals and abbeys, and the best Trappist breweries in the world, join us! You’ll be traveling with 24 travel buddies and we’re going to have a great time.

We’ve been planning this trip for two years and it’s going to be incredible. We’ll see the stunning Ghent Altarpiece (The Mystic Lamb), go on a canal boat tour of Bruges, pray at the Flanders Field American Cemetery, visit the crypt of St Damian Molokai, go to gorgeous Belgian abbeys (and taste the beer from their breweries), see cathedrals in Germany (Aachen and Cologne), and more!

You can check out the registration page: Heavenly Hops Pilgrimage with Fr. Harrison Ayre to Belgium and Germany.

And below you can view the full itinerary (except one update is that we’ll be flying home from Frankfurt rather than Cologne):

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Thanks for reading!

Haley

(Editor of Word on Fire Votive, Author, Podcaster)

Haley’s books

Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns

Haley’s Book on Jane Austen’s Novels

Haley’s Book about Radical Simplicity