MovieChat Forums > The Invisible Woman (2014) Discussion > Underimpressed with the love story...

Underimpressed with the love story...

posted 10 years ago by alvirostko
10 replies | jump to latest

This movie has very good reviews and I'm confused. I just don't feel like it lived up to the hype from the reviews. I thought I was going to be watching a love story, but instead it felt like I was watching an older, creepy man take advantage of a much younger, innocent girl. For me, it was on the verge of pedophilia. It seemed to me that she was into him intellectually, but I had a hard time believing that she truly loved him romantically. To further my confusion, her love for him is supposedly the reason for her unhappy episodes after his death. There seemed to be no chemistry between the two (Dickens and Nelly), it actually seemed like she despised him, especially after bringing her to the friend's mistress's house. I also felt like it was odd that the mother told her (Nelly) that she had no talent, thus pushing her daughter into Dickens' bed basically. For me, the most moving and real part of the movie was the interaction between Mrs. Dickens and Nelly. Anyone else feel the same?

[–] McGahern 10 years ago

Your expectations were unrealistic. It wasn't meant to be "a love story".

[–] joey-tribbiani 10 years ago

Of course it was meant to be a love story. That's what they were portraying

What was it if it wasn't? Illuminate us. Don't be shy.

[–] palvdb 10 years ago

Well I think altough Nelly did admire Dickens, she didn't exactly love him. It's more that as a pretty much failed actress she chose to live has his lover, also simply to survive.
I think it's an interesting thing, Dickens himself is shown as a bit of an arse.

[–] Squeeth2 10 years ago

He should have run off with her mum.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] Bree_33 10 years ago

In the end, The Invisible Woman remains a mystery.

------__@
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___(*)/ (*)____
»nec spe,nec metu •´¯`»

[–] chiodoesque 9 years ago

I think the creepiness might have been injected by yourself. The story was directed with great care to show the inhibitions of women, and men to a lesser extent, of Victorian England. There was virtually no actual intimacy until the latter part of the story, each movement was hesitant as they grew closer, for it was very scary ground they were treading upon. But the tenderness was obvious.
Nelly just wasn't prepared for things like Wilkie Collins' open relationship, and especially Dickens' brash move of sending his poor wife to deliver the present. But Dickens was an intense man, he couldn't deny his feelings, and he and his wife were clearly a huge mismatch, though she was played with great sympathy. Nelly was irate, but I think Dickens' honest reply left her speechless. They were on the same wavelength after that. It was his artistic integrity, and the fierce passion that went with it, that turned her on. It was a slow burn that took time to consummate. American audiences often don't have the patience to appreciate such a deliberate pace to a story, much like the novels that Dickens composed.

[–] morganseer 9 years ago

I have to agree with the folks above. To me she looked like a woman trapped. She was angry with him, she was repelled by his treatment of his wife, but she had no other option than to make the best of it. As she herself put it beforehand, she would essentially be forced to be his "whore."

She explains it clearly to someone. "Another life? What kind of other life is waiting for me?"

I think there was creepiness, and I think that was very much intended by the fillmmakers. Dickens was portrayed as a narcissist, with narcissistic ideas of idealized love, yet incapacity for real commitment. His wife saw him for the child he was, picking up new toys and laying them down again, and he hated her for it. Well, ok, she also wasn't a barrel of laughs, but she did have the burden of being the only adult in a large family.

Nelly later explains to the old man who keeps stalking her, "Pip understands Estelle will never be his." I don't think she was just talking about Estelle. I think she understood from the start exactly who Dickens was, and how much she could emotionally expect from him. And understanding that, I don't think she could have loved him. Such men can only be loved by women capable of deluding themselves that true love will be returned to them. And the Nelly character was not such a woman.

Nelly's angst after Dickens' death seemed to me not the simple grief of a woman who loved well, but more a more complicated angst of a woman who had betrayed herself. And been betrayed, in her case by her mother, who couldn't envision for her a better future than that of a courtesan.

[–] a-gallowglass 8 years ago

very well put, about being trapped/betrayed herself. my favorite was her moments on the beach, walking to clear her mind. but i dont think she regretted it in the end.

[–] VaneWimsey 9 years ago

Couldn't agree with you more. You should post this as a review.

[–] KawaiiKiwi 9 years ago

I didn't really feel their love either. To me it seemed like it was a bunch of scenes put together with no flow. Most of the time she was sad or angry at him, and there were very few scenes where they seemed happy and in love. The whole thing was very depressing and I couldn't buy the love story. I'm sure he found her pretty and she liked his notoriety, but I never saw them as a happy couple in love except maybe one scene that was the closest to that. It was hard believing she was so grieving after his death considering it never seemed like she truly loved him beyond his popular author status. The movie was okay, but not really captivating. I wasn't rooting for them in anyway during the film.