The Invisible Woman, 2013.
Directed by Ralph Fiennes.
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Hollander, Joanna Scanlan and Michelle Fairley.
SYNOPSIS:
At the height of his career, Charles Dickens meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death.
The Invisible Woman is a subtle and incredibly quiet affair, almost too quiet in its final product. In Ralph Fiennes portrayal of Charles Dickens, his approach is secretive, flecked with moments of uncomfortable intelligence and intimacy-a shrine of emotions-balanced with subtlety and a silence by Felicity Jones, adding a femme fatal intensity. Fiennes directs with a hushed sense of bravado-an opening shot of Jones walking across a bare beach is uncomfortable and shot beautifully. Yet he fails to exploit these moments.
Subtlety can only go so far. The usually booming Kristin Scott Thomas is relegated into a role used simply as exposition, allowing Fiennes to quietly develop the plot around her. This works into the hands of screenwriter Abi Morgan, who dances with the language of Dickens, flowing from the screen . Yet there is something awkward, almost hap-hazardous in this approach. The audience never truly understand the motives of the characters, Morgan placing emphasis less on the affair, and more on the inability to discuss, a problem protruding out from the film.
The title works into the hands of Jones, who plays the illicit affair almost childlike, forced into maturity at an incredibly young age. Jones, who impressed in the similarly quiet Breathe In last year, confronts Fiennes and stands against him impressively. She plays the role with a fierce intelligence that sadly fails to truly be shown as a result of a strangely baron and lonely script.
Fiennes continues to show his strength not only as an actor but as a director. Whereas Coriolanus was loud and bombastic, The Invisible Woman finds Fiennes telling a story of an unheard of illicit affair with all the secretive ideals of an illicit affair. Under the paradigm of a different director, this may have felt forced, a loveless marriage against a passionate affair, but Fiennes plays it beautifully, never showing it as black and white.
A film of intense subtlety and intelligence, The Invisible Woman plays almost like an affair. It tip toes from scene to scene, quietly building into a finale that feels appropriately quiet. Although sporadically engrossing the drama folds out beautifully and the overall product is beautiful to look at.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Thomas Harris
Originally published February 7, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
