![]() |
Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones excel in the thoughtful and well handled The Invisible Woman |
The affair is deduced from careful deduction and the small remaining
correspondence (both parties destroyed large numbers of letters) by the
biographer Claire Tomlin. Her book forms the basis of Fiennes’ thoughtful,
careful and intelligent film, with the director playing Dickens and Felicity
Jones as Nelly Ternan. The Invisible Woman is restrained and
unjudgmental film-making, that largely avoids obvious moral calls and weaves a beautifully
constructed tale of two people who make themselves both happy and miserable.
And that misery is partly due to the times they live in.
It’s an era of Victorian morals, where all that matters is the surface
appearance and any real emotions underneath can go hang. But it’s also a world
where very different rules apply to men and women. Dickens can leave his wife (in
a press announcement) – but of course a woman could never do the same. It’s a
world of strictly defined rules, with clear roles for both genders that cannot
be deviated from. And it forces Nelly Ternan to travel to Paris, because the
public shame that would come with her pregnancy by Dickens would destroy her.
It’s why, years after Dicken’s death, she is lying about how well she knew the
man (even changing her name and age to further distance herself) so that she
can conform with the expectations of being a school-master’s wife (and ensure she
will not be thrown out to the streets).
The rules are so strong that both Dickens and Ternan are as
much in thrall to them as anyone else. Dickens is willing to bend the rules –
but only so far. He would clearly never dream of living openly with his
unmarried partner and their child as his friend Wilkie Collins (a perfectly
cast Tom Hollander) would do. And Nelly Ternan is as outraged at this liaison –
and as desperately uncomfortable in their home – as any prim housewife would
be. In fact, in many ways, Nelly is even more conservative than Dickens.
But then she has to be. After all, he would be a rogue, she
would be a whore. Choices aren’t great for women – and in her chosen career of
actress, Nelly is clearly far more enthusiastic than she is talented. It’s
worries about the career that leads to her mother – an excellent performance of
motherly love mixed with a quiet understanding of the world from Kristin Scott
Thomas – all but encouraging Dickens to seduce her daughter. Because, for an
independently minded woman passionate about the art, if you can’t be an actress
your other option is to be a muse.
Even Dickens seems quietly ashamed at his seduction of this
woman, while she half-persuades herself it isn’t happening until it is. So,
what draws them together? Refreshingly this isn’t a question of an older man
excited by a younger woman – or a naïve woman swept up by a powerful man.
Instead, these are kindred spirits. Both of them are passionate, intelligent
and questioning. They both express an emotional honesty and openness. They have
shared passions for literature, theatre and stories. It’s a romance that slowly
blossoms and is based on a shared feeling. It would have been easier to tell a
story of seduction and abuse – but this is a more intelligent film than that. At
that fatal train accident, its Dickens who yearns to stay with Nelly and its
Nelly that urges him to leave to preserve his secrets.
As these two, we have two actors with beautiful chemistry.
Felicity Jones is inspired as Nelly Ternan. She both idolises Dickens, but is
also drawn towards him on a very human level. She is astute, but conservative
and at times even remote. Her older self, over a decade later, is both prickly
and defensive – and those are qualities you can trace in her younger self, and
not just because of her fear of disgrace. It’s a beautifully judged
performance, both older than her time and also with a vibrancy and energy that
entrances.
Fiennes, a more reserved actor, seems like an odd choice for
the bon vivant Dickens – but he brilliantly excels in the role, full of energy
and room-filling dominance. He marvellously conveys the charm and passion of
Dickens, but also his thoughtlessness. This is after all a man who drops his
wife by newspaper announcement and builds a barrier between their bedrooms. Who
loves Nelly, but not enough to make her anything but a secret. Who is
passionate and excited about his work, but can be turn distant and cool in his
personal life. It’s a fabulous performance.
And the two leads are centred in a low-key, poetic film. You
get the sense that there is a danger in getting to close to genius. Dicken’s
wife Catherine – a beautifully sad and lonely performance from Joanna Scanlan –
even warns Nelly about it (while delivering a gift from her husband, sent to
her by mistake). It’s a danger that shapes Nelly’s whole life – but also her
life is enriched by having Dickens in it. It’s a film that avoids obvious moral
judgments – and while there are things done which cause pain, everyone is
living in an imperfect society. Fiennes direction and use of visual language is
wonderful and this is an impressive film.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.