At the height of his brilliant career, Charles Dickens meets a younger woman who becomes his secret lover until his death. The younger woman was Nelly Ternan, 27 years his junior. They met when she was 18 and appearing with her mother and sisters in a play Charles was producing.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, a new film directed by Ralph Fiennes from a screenplay by Abi Morgan, is based on the biography of the same name, by Claire Tomalin, published in 1991. The biography tells of their long-term clandestine affair, after Charles had ceased to love his wife Catherine who had borne him 10 children.

The story is told in flashback years after his death. By then, Nelly (Felicity Jones) is the wife of the headmaster of a church school and she helps direct a school production of a Dickens play. Her husband knows nothing of the affair with Dickens (Ralph Fiennes).

So well has Dickens rendered her ‘invisible’. Charles and Nelly are involved in a train derailment on the way to London and Dickens doesn’t even acknowledge that they were traveling together. Ironically, her invisibility is the thing that allowed Nelly to marry later.

The film sustains a level of tension as the screenplay links a series of small tragedies. Charles, the charming celebrity, displays a lack of warmth towards his wife and sons. After Nelly has a stillbirth, it is not clear whether Charles’ callousness is more pervasive that initially indicated, or whether it is just emotional bleakness.

The productions mainly subdued colours, costume and music come across as appropriate to the 19th century period. The lack of much real discussion between Charles and his wife, or Charles and Nelly imposes a distance between the audience and the characters on screen. The love scenes are restrained and the long intense looks followed by fuzzy kisses do not raise the heat.

Ralph Fiennes plays the controlling, vain Dickens. Felicity Jones as Nelly reflects the lack of depth of an 18 year old, yet shows us a more robust adult as the wife of the schoolmaster. Kristin Scott Thomas features in a small but pivotal role as Nelly’s mother, who is an actress and aware that, while people may talk, her daughter’s future would be guaranteed if she were to hook up with the famous writer. Her acting is precise and insightful. Joanna Scanlan plays Catherine Dickens submissively trying to hold the family together. Tom Hollander bringa some light in his performance as Wilkie Collins.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN is an interesting enough tale, giving audiences another side to the Charles Dickens legend, though it fails to reach  any great heights.