The Invisible Woman Review

RYAN: Expanding release nationwide this weekend is The Invisible Woman, which came out in larger cities last year.  It’s the second movie directed by Ralph Fiennes and he stars as Charles Dickens.  It costars Kristin Scott Thomas and Felicity Jones and it’s very slow and confusing, to the point of boring.

CHUCK: Confusing is the simplest way of putting it.  It doesn’t make linear sense.  Not that it has to be linear, but it didn’t do a good job delineating between the flashbacks.

RYAN: Aside from seeing Felicity Jones in a black dress, you wouldn’t know which era you’re in.

CHUCK: Right they didn’t age her at all. It’s a sad testament when you have talent like Kristin Scott Thomas, who I was thrilled to see, and Ralph but it’s still a boring piece of work.

RYAN: I don’t like Ralph as a director.  I didn’t like his previous effort, Coriolanus, at all.  He starred in that one too.  When you like period movies, like Jane Austen adaptations, they’re fun, innocent, dramatic and clever; or even if you’ve seen a movie based on Charles Dickens’ books, they’re much more engaging than this is.

CHUCK: Great Expectations, Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol…

RYAN: Oh, brilliant!  The Invisible Woman has none of that magic or anything to make you care about it.

CHUCK: I totally agree.

RYAN: It’s partly because the script is wonky, but also because the direction is very heavy handed and complicated to the point of confusion.

CHUCK: You’re right.  It needed to be tightened up and things clarified so you could believe what was happening as opposed to just watching it like paint dry.

RYAN: We watched this on a DVD screener and thankfully were able to talk each other through it but had I seen this in the theater, where I couldn’t have confirmed with you what i thought was going on, I’d have been very frustrated.

CHUCK: There may be people who want to see it for the cast of for liking a period piece and the production value is good, but there wasn’t anything spectacular about it.  And if we hadn’t talked during this you’re right, it would have been even more confusing.

RYAN: I’d have rather seen an actual straightforward biopic of Charles Dickens instead of just this random slice of his life and annoying infatuation with this young maiden.  It was barely ever dramatic; maybe two scenes had a pulse, but the rest was yawntastic.

CHUCK: You’re one hundred percent right.

RYAN: You pointed out whilst watching there’s a major lack of musical scoring.

CHUCK: It’s just dead and drawn out.

RYAN: You have a sense of what’s happening or going on, but it’s never explicit so you’re left feeling lost.

CHUCK: I kept thinking I was missing something but we were both totally paying attention so something was just off and dry and for lack of a better term, British.  There was no real connection.

RYAN: It also just doesn’t make sense emotionally at the end.  There is zero chemistry between Ralph and Felicity and seeing this movie makes you appreciate why chemistry is so important on screen.  And Ralph is more attractive as Voldemort than as Charles Dickens.

CHUCK: (laughs)

Thanks For Viewing The The Invisible Woman Review