Having found critical acclaim with his directorial debut award-winning Coriolanus (2006) Ralph Fiennes has set the bar high for himself with his second directorial feature, The Invisible Woman. The story is based on Claire Tomalin’s 1990 non-fiction book The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. The film is surprisingly well-paced and consistently captivating. The look of the film is gorgeous; each picture could be a framer. Felicity Jones ‘s performance as Nelly Ternan glows with passion and intelligence. Dickens himself is embodied by Fiennes, whose performance as potential for Oscar nomination. Overall a work of unusual power and color.

It’s 1885. Having reinvented herself, Nelly (Jones) is now a happily married mother and school teacher. Yet she is haunted by the past. At 18, she met Dickens (Fiennes), then 45 and at the height of his career. A blossoming actress, Nelly appeared in a play he’d adapted and the two embarked on a relationship that had to be kept secret, given that he was married with 10 children. The cast also includes Kristin Scott-Thomas, as Ternan’s mother; one of Britain’s finest actors (Oscar nominee for The English Patient and 
Schindler’s List). Tom Hollander as fellow novelist Wilkie Collins, and Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark in “Game Of Thrones”) as Collins’ common-law wife. The film is scheduled to open in December 2013 to almost tie in with the 200th anniversary of Dickens’ birth 1812.

The Invisible Woman is a beautiful canvas of England in the late 1800; it is visually stunning. Costumes are magnificent; the sounds effects are commendable, my favorite being the one at the horse tracks. At any rate, director Ralph Fiennes’s film is a gorgeous production, rife with technical authenticity and eye-pleasing décors and sceneries.

Directed by Ralph Fiennes. With Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Michelle Fairley, Kristin Scott Thomas.

Highly recommended.

Christophe Chanel

Shown at this year’s TIFF13 : Toronto International Film Festival.