The Invisible Woman...not my choice tonight. Anyway Charles Dickens is a larger than life, charismatic celebrity, possibly the first media star when he meets a much younger woman and falls in love. It doesn't help that his wife, after 10 kids, has become grossly overweight and rather apathetic. When the young woman's mother more or less bargains her daughter to Dickens in return for help with the family theater career, Dickens takes on a long term mistress and separates from his wife. For some years after that she lives as a kept woman, having her very quiet affair with the author until his death. Apparently this is pretty much a true story, taken from a book of the same name.
The flick was directed and starred by Ralph Fiennes and is rather slow, quiet and very Victorian. Costumes and sets are excellent, the acting is spot on, but the whole thing is fairly drab. For a famous guy who risked his career, supported a mistress and broke a lot of rules in his time, the whole thing happened without much drama. In short, if you're looking for some Euro-Class and have a couple hours to kill, you could do worse. On the other hand, you could also do better.
