Ralph Fiennes
Felicity Jones
Kristin Scott Thomas
Tom Hollander

Abi Morgan

111 mins.
Biography, Drama, History
December 25, 2013

Rated R for some sexual content. (MPAA)

“The Invisible Woman,” based on Claire Tomalin’s “The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens,” is a well-made period-piece romance that marks the second directorial effort of Ralph Fiennes. He stars as Charles Dickens, as well. At its beginning, we’re shown an empty beach. Eventually, a young woman walks into that stretch of beach; she’s a mere pebble within its vastness. Then, the camera closes in on her skirt as she walks at a determined pace. Something’s up. That beginning is a microcosm of this film as a whole.

The young woman in question is Nelly Ternan, played by Felicity Jones. As the youngest daughter in a family of actresses, she meets Dickens as a teen. But she doesn’t have much talent, a cause for her family’s concern. The script shifts between two time periods in Nelly’s life: her time as the eventual mistress of Dickens, who’s married, and her time as a wife and mother, after Dickens’ death. During the opening, the emptiness of the beach echoes the emptiness that she feels when she’s with her husband and without Dickens. She longs for Dickens. Just as the camera closes in on her skirt, so the film itself closes in on the relationship between those two. There’s depth beneath the surface.

In some ways, “The Invisible Woman” resembles “The Piano,” another period-piece romance. They both feature empty beaches, for instance. But “The Piano” is a much stranger experience. “The Invisible Woman” also fits in, especially during its first-half, with other modern well-made period-piece romances, such as the Merchant-Ivory films, Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice,” and 1999’s “Mansfield Park.” But this film doesn’t begin with the same robustness and passion as some of that genre’s best. It’s subtler. But the good thing is that it’s clean and clear amidst its subtleties.

One of the best examples of its deft mixture of subtlety and quiet power is the scene between Ternan (the mistress) and Dickens’ wife, Catherine (played expertly by Joanna Scanlan). In this scene, Catherine pays a visit to Ternan at the urging of Dickens himself. It’s a quietly devastating moment without a hint of heaviness.

As “The Invisible Woman” progresses, though, it finds passion in spades – perhaps too much of it. Toward its second half, each scene drips with a heaviness that causes the action to stall a bit. This was certainly not a problem for most of the other films I mentioned. (“The Piano” is a possible exception.) While “The Invisible Woman” remains watchable throughout, when it loses its subtleties, it also loses just a bit of its sense of pace.

Despite that, the acting is superb – no surprise, since Fiennes is the director. And while the writing loses its way a bit by the end, the relationships remain clear with the slightest of efforts. (Credit goes to the actors and to the director for that.) Most of the lines are well-paced and in rhythm, too.

At its best, as with all successful period pieces, “The Invisible Woman” showcases solid acting, writing, and directing. It also highlights Dickens’ (along with his friend, Wilkie Collins’) willingness to challenge conventional notions and his ability to find inspiration in both his past experiences and his current affairs. It has a bit of the Dickens’ darkness, as well, which is certainly appropriate. I liked it. If it were more consistent, I would have liked it even more.

Verdict: Good to Very Good

About: (Source: theinvisiblewoman)

Nelly (Felicity Jones), a happily-married mother and schoolteacher, is haunted by her past. Her memories, provoked by remorse and guilt, take us back in time to follow the story of her relationship with Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) with whom she discovered an exciting but fragile complicity.

Dickens – famous, controlling and emotionally isolated within his success – falls for Nelly, who comes from a family of actors. The theatre is a vital arena for Dickens – a brilliant amateur actor – a man more emotionally coherent on the page or on stage, than in life. As Nelly becomes the focus of Dickens’ passion and his muse, for both of them secrecy is the price, and for Nelly a life of “invisibility”.