Her
actress-sister Frances eventually became Anthony Trollope’s sister-in-law. For her part, Ellen Ternan had a much closer
relationship with Charles Dickens, but she was infamously not his wife. Ralph Fiennes brings their not-so secret
affair to the screen as the director and star of The Invisible Woman (trailer here), which opens
tomorrow in New York.
Dickens
was a genuine literary celebrity—the Stephen King of his era. He even wrote serialized novels too. Dickens also had ten children from his plain,
unassuming wife, Catherine. As the Dickenses grow increasingly distant, it is
not terribly surprising the novelist will eventually succumb to temptation with
one of his many admirers. That will be
Ellen “Nelly” Ternan.
By
all accounts, Ternan was a middling actress at best, but she still caught
Dickens’ eye in a production of The
Frozen Deep, his quasi-collaboration with Wilkie Collins. Dickens quickly becomes a patron to the
Ternan family, including her mother and two sisters, all of whom are considered
better thespians than Ellen. Of course,
Mrs. Ternan is no fool, but she understands the limits of her daughter’s
options.
Nevertheless,
this is still Victorian England, when scandal meant something. To play the part of Dickens’ mistress, Ternan
will have to assume the titular invisibility.
Even if she wanted to, she is incapable of flaunting social norms, like
Collins and his lover. Regardless, the
truth is bound to come out sooner or later, or else Fiennes’ film would never
exist.
So
here it is, somewhat more preoccupied with societal conventions and class
distinctions than a typical installment of PBS’s Masterpiece, but not too very far removed stylistically. It is hardly an apology for Dickens, but
Fiennes’ lead performance is easily the best thing going for it. He rather brilliantly expresses the passion
and recklessness lurking beneath his almost painful reserve. Unfortunately, it is sort of like watching
one hand clap during his scenes with Felicity Jones’ Ternan. When Fiennes is
quietly intense, she is just quiet.
Frankly,
Invisible must stack the deck against
Dickens’ poor, anti-trophy wife to sell his attraction to the pale, mousy Ternan. Maybe we just don’t get Jones here, but it seems
like most red blooded scribblers would be more interested in Kristin Scott
Thomas’s elegant and sultry Mrs. Ternan.
Regardless, Joanna Scanlon’s subverts the intended sabotage of her
character, investing the real Mrs. Dickens with excruciating dignity and
humility.
