The Invisible Woman

Abi Morgan's screenplay, based on Claire Tomalin's book of the same name, tells the story of Charles Dickens' (Ralph Fiennes') affair with 18-year-old Ellen ("Nelly") Ternan (Felicity Jones). The film contains some memorable visual images: both Dickens and Nelly are seen staring out of a train window, their reflections seen in the glass, suggesting imprisonment, both mental and physical. There is a recurring image of Nelly walking across the deserted beach in Margate, Kent; like Dickens she had grown fond on brisk walks, but this walk suggests that she is going nowhere fast - an apt metaphor for her love-affair with Dickens. The interiors are photographed in dark colors, with an eye for pictorial detail reminiscent of GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (2003); they seem claustrophobic, hemming Nelly in as she tries to come to terms with her feelings. There is one memorable sequence in fellow author Wilkie Collins' (Tom Hollander's) house, where director Fiennes' camera focuses on her face as she looks wildly from side to side; she just has to run outside at any cost, in order to sustain her sanity. The film focuses relentlessly on the two protagonists; there is very little music on the soundtrack, and all we can hear in the background is the crackle of the fire, the drip of the tap, or the rustle of the trees. Through such strategies director Fiennes forces us to concentrate on the characters' feelings. Yet despite these moments of technical and visual brilliance, the film remains uncertain about its moral priorities. On the one hand Dickens is presented as a family man, perpetually concerned with doing the right thing; but he cannot escape the moral consequences of his actions. He treats his wife and family shamefully and insists at one point that he can have a lover and still sustain his public image. From then on, everything he tries to do to improve Nelly's position - buying her a new house, fixing her up with an acting job - only makes things worse. He lacks the moral strength to do the right thing, however much he protests otherwise. We are left to wonder exactly what Fiennes thinks of Dickens, as it's not clear how he is presented in the film.