Festival Gala screening - short review - THE INVISIBLE WOMAN by Ralph Fiennes

Presented as one of the main Gala screenings at the 57^th BFI London Film Festival, The Invisible Woman tells the story of the love affair between Charles Dickens, at the time of already being a very celebrated writer, and the much younger Nelly Ternan. Ralph Fiennes’ plays it safe in his second directorial effort, which unfortunately represents a lot of the staleness of recent period costume dramas. Despite the dealing with an icon of classic literature such as Dickens, The Invisible Woman is simply too straight forward and offers little more than is expected by default in a film of its kind. Furthermore, the love affair between Dickens and Ternan is perhaps not handled in the best of ways – not only does it lack the passion and intensity that would have been required to make this film credible or even entertaining, but often also feel downright awkward and uncomfortable.