I don't think I can adequately describe just how boring this film is.
To make anything relating to Dickens so dull is some achievement.
I thought it was meant to be about the affair Dickens had with a young actress.
They don't even have any form of private conversation until 50 minutes in. They don't get it on until 80 minutes in. You barely see them together for the rest of it either. Just inane clips of the sisters singing banal songs quietly and talking about their clothes wearing out.
At the end she tells the vicar how she and Charlie spent evenings talking and laughing together. We do not see a single example of this. No real signs of any deep or joyous connection.
So when the so-called relationship turns cold at the end there is no sense of anything great lost.
Actors are hardly present. Mumbling lines in a pseudo realistic way that is just irritating.
Fiennes is rubbish.
Much of the dialogue is so quiet you can't hear it. And what you can hear is banal.
Haven't read the book, don't know the facts, but Dickens does not come across well. An older famous man exploiting a young woman's crush. It's a man's world. Wife had god knows how many kids with him and now her body is wrecked he's moving on cos she doesn't understand him.
Nelly's mother pimping her out.
Pretentious in parts. Lots of pointless shots of the back of people. Disconnected scenes that have no purpose - juxtaposed with up-to-date scenes of her racing along a beach. Enthralling. Not.
Don't bother.
LATER: Apparently Claire Tomalin's book (and hence this film) is pure speculation, and a more plausible explanation of Dickens' relationship with Nelly is that she was his illegitimate daughter.
To make anything relating to Dickens so dull is some achievement.
I thought it was meant to be about the affair Dickens had with a young actress.
They don't even have any form of private conversation until 50 minutes in. They don't get it on until 80 minutes in. You barely see them together for the rest of it either. Just inane clips of the sisters singing banal songs quietly and talking about their clothes wearing out.
At the end she tells the vicar how she and Charlie spent evenings talking and laughing together. We do not see a single example of this. No real signs of any deep or joyous connection.
So when the so-called relationship turns cold at the end there is no sense of anything great lost.
Actors are hardly present. Mumbling lines in a pseudo realistic way that is just irritating.
Fiennes is rubbish.
Much of the dialogue is so quiet you can't hear it. And what you can hear is banal.
Haven't read the book, don't know the facts, but Dickens does not come across well. An older famous man exploiting a young woman's crush. It's a man's world. Wife had god knows how many kids with him and now her body is wrecked he's moving on cos she doesn't understand him.
Nelly's mother pimping her out.
Pretentious in parts. Lots of pointless shots of the back of people. Disconnected scenes that have no purpose - juxtaposed with up-to-date scenes of her racing along a beach. Enthralling. Not.
Don't bother.
LATER: Apparently Claire Tomalin's book (and hence this film) is pure speculation, and a more plausible explanation of Dickens' relationship with Nelly is that she was his illegitimate daughter.