Starring: Felicity Jones, Ralph Fiennes, Joanna Scanlan
A wildly popular writer, Charles Dickens (Fiennes) is staging a production that he has written to be performed at Manchester. For the production, a family of actresses all take the opportunity to perform but it is the sister with the least talent, Nelly (Jones) who catches Dickens' eye and with whom he begins an adulterous and tempestuous affair.
Having made his directorial debut in 2011 with an adaptation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, Ralph Fiennes now turns his hand to another one of Britain's legendary writers, Charles Dickens, in a real-life drama with Fiennes also taking on the role of the novelist. The results are mixed but in a way that might come as unexpected from someone with Fiennes' background.
The film's greatest strength is its cinematography. The film is often bathed in this intimate yet smouldering light that provides a characterful glow to much of the scenery and provides a rich atmosphere. Aside from this, the film affords a look into Dickens' personal life that is not seen very often and whilst the gravitas of his actions are put across, the film never descends into character assassination, helping you stay with him as the story progresses.
Whilst The Invisible Woman shows that Fiennes has potential as a a director, this brief and rather forgettable film is better viewed as a technical exercise, but there's room to build on.
Next time, Joaquin Phoenix is Theodore Twombley. A man who falls in love with an operating system (with he voice of Scarlett Johanson) in Her.
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