The Invisible Woman is a historical drama (based on a true story), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.
It is the story of the famous British author Charles Dickens and his secret affair with actress Ellen “Nelly” Ternan, who was more than twenty years younger than him.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** Directed by Ralph Fiennes
** Screenplay by Abi Morgan
** Based on the book The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin (Hardcover 1990) (Paperback 2012)
** Shown in theatres and released on DVD in 2014
** Run time: 111 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Ralph Fiennes as Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
** Joanna Scanlan as his wife Catherine Dickens (1815-1879)
** Felicity Jones as Ellen “Nelly” Ternan (1839-1914)
** Kristin Scott Thomas as Ellen’s mother Mrs. Ternan (1803-1873)
I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. Therefore, I am not going to reveal too much information. But a few details must be mentioned in order to explain and justify my rating of the drama.
PART ONE - THE PLOT
Charles and Catherine were married in 1836. They had ten children. Charles came from a poor family, but his writings made him a person who was quite famous and occasionally quite well-off.
In 1857, he met Ellen Ternan, her two sisters and her mother, when they joined his troupe as actors in a play in Manchester. Charles was fascinated with the young actress. Charles and Ellen began a secret affair.
His affair with Ellen lasted for more than ten years, from 1857 until his death in 1870. He was older than her. When they met in 1857, he was 45, while she was still a teenager, more precisely 18.
The affair was a big secret. Dickens formally separated from his wife Catherine in 1858, but his relationship with Ellen was never official.
He did everything he could to hide it from public view and to a large extent he was successful. This was, after all, the time of Queen Victoria: a famous person such as Charles Dickens could not divorce his first wife and marry a second and younger wife. This was simply not done.
Obviously, he could have done it, if he really wanted to. It was not illegal. But he did not do it, because he was afraid it would ruin his reputation and damage his career as a writer.
In his last will and testament, he donated a sum of 1,000 pounds to Ellen. At the time, this was a huge amount of money.
In 1876, six years after his death, Ellen reinvented herself and began a new life: she married a man whose name was George Wharton Robinson.
George thought he was older than her. In fact, she was older than him. She lied about her age. She claimed she was fourteen years younger than she actually was. Ellen and George had two children, a boy and a girl. Together they ran a school for boys in Margate.
While Charles was alive, there were rumours about his affair with Ellen, but he ignored them or denied them. This approach was also followed by his children, the last of whom died in 1933. Since then, the story has been told on several occasions, sometimes with many details.
PART TWO - REVIEWS AND RATINGS
What do reviewers say about this drama? Here are the results of three review aggregators:
61 percent = IMDb
75 percent = Meta
75 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (critics)
44 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (audience)
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 600 ratings, more than 200 with reviews. The average rating is 3.9 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 78 percent.
The Roger Ebert website offers 3.5 of 4 stars; while The Guardian and The Telegraph both offer 4 out of 5 stars.
If you ask me, all the positive ratings listed here are too high. On the other hand, I find the negative rating offered by the audience on Rotten Tomatoes too harsh.
Why?
I have four reasons.
# 1. In the drama, we never see the passion of this affair. We never see the moment when he falls for her nor the moment when she falls for him. In fact, the film is surprisingly unclear about when, where, and how it all began.
The first scene is set in Margate in 1883 where we see Ellen walking on the beach. She is haunted by memories of her past. She is walking very fast, as if she is trying to escape the memory of her time with Charles.
Then there is a long flashback to the time with Charles. An on-screen message explains that we are in Manchester “some years earlier.”
In fact, the year is 1857, which is 26 years before the scene in Margate. But Ellen looks exactly the same. In 1857 she was 18. And 26 years later, in 1883, she has not aged a day!
# 2. In the drama, Charles never has a kind word for Ellen. In one scene he sets her up in a house he has rented for her (under a false name). He is not going to live there with her. He is going to visit when he can. The house is in the middle of nowhere. He has picked an isolated spot, hoping to avoid any gossip.
Before leaving, he tells her about the attractions of the nearby village and as a bonus he tells her the timetable for the train to London. He is very practical. But not very charming. Not very romantic.
# 3. One event that made a deep impression on Dickens is the Staplehurst rail crash, which took place on 9 June 1865.
Several carriages were derailed, 10 passengers were killed and 40 were injured. Dickens was a passenger on the train. He was travelling with Ellen and her mother. All three survived the crash.
In the drama, we see the crash, but the mother is not there. She has been removed from the story. In the drama, Dickens is travelling with Ellen. And only her.
After the crash, someone recognises him and says:
“Are you Charles Dickens?”
He confirms.
Someone asks him:
“Are you travelling alone or with someone?”
He says he is alone.
In this moment, with death and destruction around him, the famous author thinks first about his career and his reputation. He denies knowing Ellen who is lying on the ground, wounded and bleeding.
She is supposedly his soul mate, the love of his life, but he claims he is alone. He does not know her. They are not together.
Before taking care of other passengers, he also takes a moment to return to the carriage in order to retrieve the manuscript that he was working on just before the crash happened (this detail is historically correct).
Why is the mother Mrs. Ternan written out of the story? This is a case where the drama violates historical truth.
As far as I can see, this distortion does not serve any artistic purpose. Charles was travelling with Ellen and her mother. Why would he deny knowing her or them? He had known her and her mother for almost ten years.
# 4. As you can see from the charts above, Fiennes is not only the director, he also plays the role of Charles Dickens, one of the two leading roles in the film.
He has broken the golden rule which says: you can be the director or you can be an actor, but don't try to be both in the same movie.
As an actor, you are inside the drama; as the director, you are outside. If you try to be both at the same time, you may have a conflict of interest.
The golden rule makes sense. In most cases, it is not a good idea to break it, and this film is one of these cases. Apparently, Fiennes devoted most of his attention to being an actor and did not have enough attention left to be the director.
A good director would have noticed the flaws I have mentioned here. A good director would not have allowed these flaws to remain in the final version of the drama. He would have corrected them before it was released.
CONCLUSION
The Invisible Woman is based on a true story which deserves to be told. Sadly, it is not told very well.
This historical drama is not great. It is not even good. It is average. This is why it deserves three stars (60 percent).
PS # 1. For more details, see this book:
The Great Charles Dickens Scandal
by Michael Slater
(Hardcover 2012)
(Paperback 2014)
PS # 2. The following articles are available online:
** Kate Taylor, “How Dickens’ mistress lost her cloak of invisibility for all time,” Toronto Globe & Mail, 17 January 2014
** Rebecca Pearson, “Who was Nelly Ternan?” The Telegraph, 30 January 2014
*****
The Invisible Woman
(2013)
*****
Charles Dickens
(1812-1870)
*****
Ellen "Nelly" Ternan
(1839-1914)
*****
The Invisible Woman:
The Story of
Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan
By Claire Tomalin
(Hardcover 1990)
(Paperback 2012)
*****
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