The Invisible Woman (2013 film)

Last updated

The Invisible Woman
The Invisible Woman poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ralph Fiennes
Written by Abi Morgan
Based onThe Invisible Woman
by Claire Tomalin
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Rob Hardy
Edited byNicolas Gaster
Music by Ilan Eshkeri
Production
companies
Distributed by Lionsgate [1]
Release dates
  • 31 August 2013 (2013-08-31)(Telluride)
  • 7 February 2014 (2014-02-07)(UK)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£12 million [2]
Box office$3.2 million [3]

The Invisible Woman is a 2013 British biographical drama film directed by Ralph Fiennes and starring Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas and Tom Hollander. Written by Abi Morgan, and based on the 1990 book of the same name by Claire Tomalin, the film is about the secret love affair between Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan, which lasted for thirteen years until his death in 1870. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2013, [4] and was released in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2014. The film received a Best Costume Design nomination (Michael O'Connor) at the 86th Academy Awards. [5]

Contents

Plot

In 1857, [Note 1] eighteen-year-old English actress Ellen "Nelly" Ternan (Felicity Jones) is noticed by the forty-five-year-old Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes) while she is performing at London's Haymarket Theatre. Soon after, he casts her, along with her mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and sister Maria (Perdita Weeks), in a performance of The Frozen Deep by Wilkie Collins at Dickens's Free Trade Hall in Manchester. At a party following the performance, Dickens and Nelly share a brief moment alone.

Nelly and her family attend one of Dickens's readings at the Harrow Speech Room in London. Dickens is delighted to see Nelly again. He takes the Ternans to Doncaster Racecourse. No longer having feelings for his wife, who is busy taking care of their ten children and does not share his passion for literature, Dickens falls for the much younger actress. Nelly, in turn, is fascinated by the novelist's fame and ideas.

One morning, Dickens slips out of Gads Hill Place, his country home, and walks to East London to see Nelly in a play. Her mother invites him to their cottage. Noticing the looks between them, Mrs. Ternan cautions him that she cannot afford to risk her daughter's reputation. Dickens tells her that he has no intention of compromising Nelly's name. After organising a reading and fundraiser to benefit London's "fallen women" and their children, Dickens invites the Ternans to his town house, where Nelly examines with reverence the author's books and writing instruments.

Mrs. Ternan confides to her daughter Fanny her feelings about the relationship between Nelly and Dickens. She believes this may offer Nelly the financially stable future she would not find on stage, as Nelly is not as talented as her sisters. Overhearing, Nelly is angered and confused by her mother's plans for her to become the mistress of a married man. Dickens's wife Catherine (Joanna Scanlan) mistakenly receives Dickens's gemstone bracelet for Nelly and is ordered by Dickens to bring it to Nelly. Catherine is gracious and gently warns her of the pain of being with Dickens, while Nelly is disturbed by Dickens's cruelty.

Dickens and Collins arrive late to Nelly's birthday party and talk her into visiting the house that Collins shares with his mistress, Caroline Graves (Michelle Fairley). After demanding to leave, she confronts Dickens about insulting her honour by bringing her to the house and his suggested arrangement of her being his whore. After arguing that he no longer loves his wife, Dickens asks to enter Nelly's home and kisses her.

On a walk, Dickens and Nelly have an embarrassing encounter with his son, who hints that he is saddened to see her affections with his father. Soon after, Dickens announces in The Times his "amicable" separation from his wife while denying the rumours of his affair. His wife and children are shocked and devastated by the news.

Nelly's mother assures her that Dickens is an honourable man, while Collins tells Nelly that he is a great man and points out that she has a choice. Nelly argues that only men have the freedom to choose and suggests that she has few other options in life. He urges her to be with Dickens and "break conventions". Nelly visits Dickens, who excitedly tells her that he has completed Great Expectations . Nelly expresses her approval of the ending, which does not bring Estella and Pip together. They become lovers.

Nelly becomes pregnant. She and Dickens speak of the gossip of their affair spreading from city to city. Their child is stillborn. After saving a lock of the child's hair, Dickens signs the death certificate with a false name, "M. Charles Tringham".

After returning to England from France in the spring of 1865, Dickens and Nelly board a train at Folkestone for London. Near Staplehurst in Kent, the train derails. As Dickens speaks to Nelly, the workers ask the uninjured Dickens to assist with wounded passengers in the wreckage. He pretends he was travelling alone, to avoid public scandal. As he walks away to help, she watches him retrieve a page from Our Mutual Friend , his work in progress.

Dickens installs Nelly at a country house and promises to visit twice weekly, though acknowledges that his family has a claim on his time. Nelly remains his secret mistress until his death in 1870. In 1876, she marries Wharton-Robinson. They have a son together. Wharton-Robinson does not understand Nelly's emotional turmoil. Only Reverend Benham knows about the affair and Nelly's real age. As she watches her son perform in a school play, Nelly recalls the lines she spoke on stage in The Frozen Deep.

Cast

Production

Headline Pictures' Stewart Mackinnon first acquired the film rights to Claire Tomalin's biography and commissioned Abi Morgan to write the screenplay with development funding from BBC Films and the British Film Institute. The screenplay was written and Mackinnon then approached a number of co-producers and directors before contracting Gabrielle Tana, who had worked with Fiennes on Coriolanus , his directorial debut. [6] She proposed the project to Fiennes in 2010, after he finished Coriolanus. [7] : 9  Headline then contracted Fiennes and Tana. Fiennes' participation as director was announced in July 2011. [8] He did not know much about Dickens before taking on the project: "I was ignorant. I had only read Little Dorrit. I knew his obvious ones—Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations—through adaptations. And Christmas Carol. I didn't know much about the man." [9]

Fiennes initially approached another actor to play the role of Dickens but it did not work out and he eventually played the part. He worked closely with Abi Morgan on the script and little by little he warmed to the idea of playing Dickens. [10] Fiennes and Morgan often met with Tomalin who provided guidance, but she wished to remain outside the actual screenwriting. [7] : 9–10  The screenplay is structured around a series of "small tragedies and moments of catalyst" described in Tomalin's book, which defined their affair according to her. [7] : 10  The actresses considered for the role of Nelly Ternan included Carey Mulligan, Abbie Cornish, and Felicity Jones. [8] Jones was officially cast in December 2011. Her casting occurred before Fiennes agreed to portray Dickens. [7] : 13 

Principal photography began in April 2012 with a planned filming schedule of ten weeks in Kent and London. [11] Exteriors were shot at Camber Sands which stood in for Margate where the 1870s scenes were set. [7] : 15  Filming also took place for two days at Leavesden Film Studios in Hertfordshire. [7] : 13 : 17 

The film had an operating budget of £12 million. [2]

Release

The Invisible Woman premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2013. [12] The first trailer was launched on 4 October 2013. [13] The film had a limited release in the United States on 25 December 2013 and opened in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2014.[ citation needed ]

Reception

Box office

The Invisible Woman earned £1,026,591.43 ($1,373,682) at the Box Office in the United Kingdom and $1,229,853 in the United States. [14] The total worldwide gross was £2,380,130.78 ($3,184,853). [3]

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes calculated a 75% approval rating, with an average score of 6.73/10, based on 158 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Its deliberate pace will frustrate some viewers, but for fans of handsomely mounted period drama, The Invisible Woman offers visual as well as emotional cinematic nourishment." [15] On review aggregator Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 75/100, based on 41 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [16]

In his review on RogerEbert.com , Godfrey Cheshire gave the film three and a half out of four stars, calling it "a formidable achievement for Fiennes as both actor and director". [17] Cheshire wrote that the story is told with "extraordinary delicacy and cinematic intelligence" and with a "finely calibrated poetic obliqueness that draws the viewer into the relationship's gradual unfolding". [17] Cheshire continued:

In Fiennes' handling, very little is stated in a straightforward or obvious way. It's almost as if he took Abi Morgan's screenplay ... and stripped away its most utilitarian dialogue, leaving only hints and suggestions of emotions that then must be fleshed out by the actors. The method ... makes for a narrative that's constantly evocative, mysterious, almost impressionistic, and that involves the viewer in the pleasurably engrossing game of puzzling out the characters' aim and motives. [17]

Cheshire also praised the performances of the leading actors, including Fiennes who "creates an exuberant portrait of Dickens that encompasses his vanity and selfishness as well as his bounteousness and thirst for life", Jones who is "luminous" and "conveys the young woman's mix of awe, intoxication and anxiety as she is drawn inexorably into the orbit of a powerful older man", and Scanlan who shows Catherine Dickens' "dignity and grace in heart-rending circumstances". [17] Cheshire concluded:

The Invisible Woman is one of those evanescent conjurings of a bygone time in which every part serves the whole. The most entrancing and persuasive evocation of Victorian England offered in any recent film, it reflects superb work on the parts of many contributors. [17]

In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film four out of five stars, calling the film "piercingly intimate and intelligent" and praises Fiennes for his "strength as a director" and for his "richly sanguine" portrayal of Charles Dickens. [18] Bradshaw also praises Scanlan for her "shrewd and sensitive performance as Dickens's neglected wife". [18] Bradshaw concluded, "This is an engrossing drama, with excellent performances and tremendous design by Maria Djurkovic." [18]

In his review for The Telegraph , Tim Robey gave the film four out of five stars. [19] Robey focused on the acting performances, especially Scanlan who "gives arguably the standout performance in this generally smashing cast ... in two perfectly weighted, emotionally crushing scenes". [19]

In his review in the New York Observer , Rex Reed called the film "a cogently written and elegantly appointed period piece that relates passages in his books to emotions in his personal life, holding the attention and shedding light on one of literature’s most fascinating footnotes". [20]

Notes

  1. ↑ The story is told through a series of flashbacks by Nelly in Margate in 1883, thirteen years after Dickens' death. She is now married to Oxford graduate George Wharton-Robinson, who is twelve years her junior and unaware that she was once the mistress of Charles Dickens.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Dickens</span> English novelist and social critic (1812–1870)

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist and social critic who created some of the world's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Fiennes</span> English actor (born 1962)

Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he excelled onstage at the Royal National Theatre before having further success at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Widely regarded as one of Britain's most well-known and popular actors, he has received various accolades, including a BAFTA Award and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and an Emmy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claire Tomalin</span> English biographer and journalist (born 1933)

Claire Tomalin is an English journalist and biographer known for her biographies of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft.

<i>The Avengers</i> (1998 film) 1998 film by Jeremiah S. Chechik

The Avengers is a 1998 American satirical spy action comedy film directed by Jeremiah Chechik, an adaptation of the 1961–1969 British television series of the same name. It stars Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman as secret agents John Steed and Emma Peel, and Sean Connery as Sir August de Wynter, a mad scientist bent on controlling the world's weather. Patrick Macnee, Steed in the original series, makes a vocal cameo as the voice of Invisible Jones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Ternan</span> British actress (1839–1914)

Ellen Lawless Ternan, also known as Nelly Ternan or Nelly Wharton-Robinson, was an English actress known for her association with the author Charles Dickens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felicity Jones</span> English actress (born 1983)

Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress. She started her professional acting career as a child, appearing in The Treasure Seekers (1996) at age 12. She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series of the television series The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. On radio, she has played the role of Emma Grundy in the BBC's The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Brealey</span> British actress

Louise Brealey, also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress, writer and journalist. She played Molly Hooper in Sherlock, Cass in Back, Scottish professor Jude McDermid in Clique, Gillian Chamberlain in A Discovery of Witches and Donna Harman in Death in Paradise.

The NCR Book Award for Non-Fiction, established in 1987 and sponsored by NCR Corporation, was for a time the UK's major award for non-fiction. Closing in 1997 after a period of decline and scandal, it is best remembered as the forerunner of the Samuel Johnson Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanna Scanlan</span> British actress and writer (born 1961)

Joanna Marion Scanlan is a British actress and writer. On television, she is known for her roles in The Thick of It (2005–2012), Big School (2013–2014), Puppy Love (2014), No Offence (2015–2018), Requiem (2018), and The Larkins (2021). She was nominated for three BAFTA TV Awards for Getting On (2009–2012), including two for Best Writing.

<i>The End of the Affair</i> (1999 film) 1999 film by Neil Jordan

The End of the Affair is a 1999 romantic drama film written and directed by Neil Jordan and starring Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore and Stephen Rea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Perugini</span> English Victorian-era painter and child of Charles Dickens (1839–1929)

Catherine Elizabeth Macready Perugini was an English painter of the Victorian era and the daughter of Catherine Dickens and Charles Dickens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgina Hogarth</span> Sister-in-law of Charles Dickens

Georgina Hogarth was the sister-in-law, housekeeper, and adviser of English novelist Charles Dickens and the editor of three volumes of his collected letters after his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Dickens</span> Spouse of Charles Dickens (1815–1879)

Catherine Thomson "Kate" Dickens was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, the mother of his ten children, and a writer of domestic management.

Lucinda Hawksley is an English biographer, author, lecturer, and travel writer.

Abigail Louise Morgan is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter known for her works for television, such as Sex Traffic and The Hour, and the films Brick Lane, The Iron Lady, Shame and Suffragette.

<i>Great Expectations</i> (2012 film) 2012 British film

Great Expectations is a 2012 British-American film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1861 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Mike Newell, with the adapted screenplay by David Nicholls, and stars Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Holliday Grainger, Ralph Fiennes and Robbie Coltrane. It was distributed by Lionsgate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Eleanor Trollope</span> English novelist

Frances Eleanor Trollope was an English novelist. She was best known for her biography on her mother-in-law, Frances Milton Trollope, who was famous for her book, Domestic Manners of the Americans, as well as her novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tahirah Sharif</span> British actress

Tahirah Amandla Sharif is a British actress noted mainly for her roles as student Carrie Norton in Waterloo Road in 2015, Rebecca Jessel in the Netflix horror anthology series The Haunting of Bly Manor in 2020, and PC Lizzie Adama in The Tower in 2021 for which she received a Supporting Actress BAFTA nomination.

Headline Pictures Limited is an International Emmy-winning British film and television production company founded in 2005 by BAFTA nominee Stewart Mackinnon, former BBC Head of Drama Mark Shivas and screenwriter Kevin Hood. The company is now part of the UGC group.

<i>The Aeronauts</i> (film) 2019 film directed by Tom Harper

The Aeronauts is a 2019 revisionist biographical adventure film directed by Tom Harper and written by Jack Thorne, from a story co-written by Thorne and Harper. The film is based on the 2013 book Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air by Richard Holmes. Produced by Todd Lieberman, David Hoberman, and Harper, the film stars Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Himesh Patel and Tom Courtenay.

References

  1. ↑ "The Invisible Woman". BBC . Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. 1 2 Shoard, Catherine (10 August 2011). "Ralph Fiennes to direct story of Charles Dickens affair". The Guardian . Guardian News and Media . Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  3. 1 2 "The Invisible Woman (R)". BoxOffice Pro. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "Telluride Colorado XL Film Festival (Program Guide)" (PDF). Telluride Film Festival . National Film Preserve. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Busis, Hillary (16 January 2014). "Oscars 2014: And the nominees are..." Entertainment Weekly . Time . Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Cooper, Sarah (14 May 2012). "The Invisible Woman". Screen Daily. Screen International . Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Invisible Woman" (PDF). Mongrel Media . Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  8. 1 2 Uddin, Zakia (19 July 2011). "Ralph Fiennes to direct film on Charles Dickens' secret affair?". Digital Spy . Hearst Magazines UK . Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  9. ↑ Ebiri, Bilge (23 December 2013). "Ralph Fiennes on The Invisible Woman, Playing Dickens, and His Forgotten Film". Vulture. New York Media . Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  10. ↑ Kemp, Stuart (6 September 2013). "Toronto: Ralph Fiennes Reveals Secrets of Making 'The Invisible Woman' (Q&A)". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  11. ↑ De Semlyen, Phil (25 April 2012). "Filming Starts on the Invisible Woman". Empire . Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  12. ↑ Appelo, Tim (31 August 2013). "Telluride: Dickens' Secret Sex Life Exposed in Ralph Fiennes' World Premiere 'The Invisible Woman'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  13. ↑ Billington, Alex (4 October 2013). "Watch: Felicity Jones in Ralph Fiennes' 'The Invisible Woman' Trailer". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  14. ↑ "The Invisible Woman". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved 4 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "The Invisible Woman (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  16. ↑ "The Invisible Woman Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive . Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Cheshire, Godfrey (25 December 2013). "The Invisible Woman". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  18. 1 2 3 Bradshaw, Peter (6 February 2014). "The Invisible Woman – review". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  19. 1 2 Robey, Tim (6 February 2014). "The Invisible Woman, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  20. ↑ Reed, Rex (17 December 2013). "What the Dickens? The Invisible Woman Explores a Scandalous Victorian Affair". The New York Observer. Retrieved 5 May 2014.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.