EFFIE GRAY
Adopt Films
Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes.
Grade: C+
Director: Richard Laxton
Screenwriter: Emma Thompson
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters
Screened at: Dolby88, NYC, 2/12/15
We’ve come a way from the culture of Victorian England. If you’re not a fan of history and you think that Victorian England is a branch of Victoria’s Secret, you’d be wise to see two films: one involving a chap named Gray, another about a fellow named Grey. When you compare the morals and mores embraced by the two movies, you’d think you’ve gone from Venus to Mars: that’s how different both stories are from mainstream America. As for which film you’d probably prefer, I’m guessing the American one, since notwithstanding the flaws of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” there’s considerably more entertainment value in that then in the one named “Effie Gray,” which could have been entitled “One Shade of Gray.”
Virtually everyone in Richard Laxton’s vision, based on the true story of the marriage of 19-year-old Euphemia “Effie” Gray is of one shade. The title character played by Dakota Fanning looks throughout as though she is posing for a Daguerrotype or a portrait by Mr. Turner. With her big sparkling eyes she looks lost and confused, though to be fair, with the husband she chose—never mind his celebrity status– one can’t blame her. Her husband John Ruskin—famous to this day as an art critic, a writer on sundry subjects, and a watercolor painter—refused to consummate the marriage throughout its six years’ time. Nobody knows the reason, though folks have guessed that he was Gay, perhaps impotent, disgusted by her pubic hair or her menstrual blood. Needless to say, a 19-year-old, already watching her most vital years gone, would be, to paraphrase Jane Austen, a woman who must be in want of a husband.
The plot is simple, essentially a 19-year-old virgin marries a celebrity (the latter played by Emma Thompson’s real-life, 41-year-old husband). John Ruskin (Greg Wise) becomes increasingly disgusted by the young woman, while Effie Gray (Dakota Fanning) is bewildered that he “did not make me his wife.” Effie is counseled by Lady Eastlake (Emma Thompson), who sounds like a 21st century feminist, asking Effie “what are you when you are not Mrs. John Ruskin?” but acceding to the rigid code of Victorian behavior by advising that “there is no way out.” In other words, marriage in 19th Century England is for life. She soon asks around, hiring a doctor (Robbie Coltrane) to certify that Effie is a virgin and then hiring Travers Twiss (Derek Jacobi), a lawyer, to take action to annul the marriage. Meanwhile Effie’s eyes are elsewhere, particularly on painter John Everett Millais (Tom Sturridge), whom she marries in real life and presents him with eight children—perhaps material for a sequel.
The plot is not the thing. The film purports instead to show the rigidities of Victorian life: the social pressure to avoid divorce or annulment at all costs, the men’s club aspects among the upper classes, the comparative freedom in Italy shown through the unhappy couple’s trip to Venice, and especially the portrait of Margaret Cox Ruskin (Julie Walters) as the mother-in-law from hell who does not approve of her son’s marriage, perhaps because she wants to continue bathing him. Whether a bride should live with her husband’s parents may work today in India, but is hardly advisable to Westerners whether they be Effie Gray or anyone in our own century.
Surely there is a character other than Emma Thompson’s who could have breathed life into this middlebrow presentation?
Story – B
Acting – C
Technical – B
Overall – C+
Rated PG-13. 108 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
