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To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters
May. 1st, 2018 08:31 amTo Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters is basically a two-hour movie that has been cut into two one-hour episodes, and I think many of its problems can be traced to the fact that it’s just too short. There are three Bronte sisters and, despite their reputation as recluses, they had quite eventful lives, and it’s just too much to fit into two hours.
There are so many things that I would have liked to see that just aren’t here! Charlotte Bronte’s friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell (who wrote a laudatory biography after Charlotte’s death), her meeting with Thackeray, indeed the entirety of her trips to London after Jane Eyre’s success -
A Charlotte Bronte miniseries. What I want is a Charlotte Bronte miniseries.
To Walk Invisible is about all three Bronte sisters and focuses, reasonably enough, on the three sisters together, rather than Charlotte haring off and doing her own thing.
There’s also, somewhat less reasonably I feel, quite a lot of their brother Branwell. I realize that Branwell’s drunken dissolution might seem more exciting than watching the Bronte sisters pace around the dining room table as they compose their novels together, but surely anyone who chooses to watch a Bronte miniseries would far rather listen to the Bronte girls chat about their novels than watch Branwell pass out drunk yet again. There don’t need to be entire segments focused on him to show that his alcohol-fueled self-destruction was immensely disruptive.
Now that I’ve finished complaining, let me note that the series does have some quite good qualities. The sisters are all excellent. The portrayals of Emily and Charlotte are particularly strong, but then they were more intense and decided characters than Anne in the first place, and the actress playing Anne makes the most of the somewhat thankless task of portraying the quiet peace-making sister who has actual social skills. (Charlotte seems like she has social skills but she’s basically too intense and nervy to keep it up. Emily is just plain feral.)
And the Yorkshire scenery is just gorgeous: there are some lovely, lovely shots of the moors.
There’s enough good stuff in To Walk Invisible that I’m not sorry that I watched it, but I am sorry because there are the bones of a good miniseries here and it could have been far better than it is.
There are so many things that I would have liked to see that just aren’t here! Charlotte Bronte’s friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell (who wrote a laudatory biography after Charlotte’s death), her meeting with Thackeray, indeed the entirety of her trips to London after Jane Eyre’s success -
A Charlotte Bronte miniseries. What I want is a Charlotte Bronte miniseries.
To Walk Invisible is about all three Bronte sisters and focuses, reasonably enough, on the three sisters together, rather than Charlotte haring off and doing her own thing.
There’s also, somewhat less reasonably I feel, quite a lot of their brother Branwell. I realize that Branwell’s drunken dissolution might seem more exciting than watching the Bronte sisters pace around the dining room table as they compose their novels together, but surely anyone who chooses to watch a Bronte miniseries would far rather listen to the Bronte girls chat about their novels than watch Branwell pass out drunk yet again. There don’t need to be entire segments focused on him to show that his alcohol-fueled self-destruction was immensely disruptive.
Now that I’ve finished complaining, let me note that the series does have some quite good qualities. The sisters are all excellent. The portrayals of Emily and Charlotte are particularly strong, but then they were more intense and decided characters than Anne in the first place, and the actress playing Anne makes the most of the somewhat thankless task of portraying the quiet peace-making sister who has actual social skills. (Charlotte seems like she has social skills but she’s basically too intense and nervy to keep it up. Emily is just plain feral.)
And the Yorkshire scenery is just gorgeous: there are some lovely, lovely shots of the moors.
There’s enough good stuff in To Walk Invisible that I’m not sorry that I watched it, but I am sorry because there are the bones of a good miniseries here and it could have been far better than it is.
