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Adapted from the novel Charles Dickens. Claire Tomalin's A Life (2011) tells the story of the 46-year-old writer's secret affair with his wife, or rather the legend about it, as many of the nuances of the story have not been definitively confirmed.
At the height of his literary success, there was a young 17- or 18-year-old actress named Ellen Ternan, known as Nelly.
In the mid-19th century, Dickens' marriage to Katherine Thompson Hoggarts hit a rough patch.
They married in 1836 and, although they had 10 children, his wife's indifference (especially in intellectual areas) hit the writer hard, and he came to see the marriage as a prison that robbed him of inspiration.
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Then he met Nelly, who played roles in several of his productions. She is his escape route, allowing him to release the passion and love he had previously contained.
In Victoria's prejudiced, puritanical society, Nelly was the "invisible woman", an open secret that everyone knew but no one wanted to talk about.
She and Dickens starred in a love story in the shadows that violated the moral and religious norms of the time.
Strictly speaking, this film is not a biopic about Dickens. Rather, it largely reflects on issues of human interest, such as the observance of social conventions, the role of women at the time, the importance of marriage as a social institution and the taboos of divorce.
On the one hand, it shows the decline of Dickens' relationship with Catherine, in contrast to the passion of his romantic love with Nelly; and how both try to maintain a veneer by providing people with a façade that hides a darker, immoral side. moral dogma.
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It is a gripping and entertaining story, played with great taste and brilliant performances, connecting two timelines and illuminating a life that has been deliberately obscured.
This is the love story of an atypical couple; but at the same time, it is a cinematic story about the fears, doubts, hopes and contradictions in the life of the famous British writer.