To Walk Invisible

 Year of Release:  2016

Director:  Sally Wainwright

Screenplay:  Sally Wainwright

Starring:  Finn Atkins, Chloe Pirrie, Charlie Murphy, Adam Nagaitis, Jonathan Pryce

Running Time:  120 minutes

Genre:  Biography, drama

1845:  In the small village of Haworth, West Yorkshire, the three Brontë sisters:  ambitious Charlotte (Atkins), quiet Anne (Murphy) and tough Emily (Pirrie) have delighted in writing poems and stories their whole lives.  However, after their brother Branwell (Nagaitis) is fired from his job as a tutor for having an affair with his employer's wife, he sinks deeper into alcoholism and drug addiction; to make matters worse their elderly father Patrick (Pryce) suffers from increasingly failing health. After she discovers Emily's poetry, Charlotte proposes that the sisters concentrate on their writing, which result in some of the greatest works in English literature.

This British made-for-TV film concentrates on the years 1845 to 1848, focussing on the decline of Branwell and the sister's working to establish themselves as authors.  This is a decent introduction to the lives of the Brontë sisters, and if you have read their work and are interested in knowing something about them, then this is a good place to start.  However, if you are already familiar with their lives than this won't really tell you anything knew.  The cast are impressive, with Finn Atkins, Chloe Pirrie and Charlie Murphy affecting as the sisters, and Adam Nagaitis makes the infuriating, selfish Branwell genuinely sympathetic.  The film uses occasional flashes of fantasy to portray the sisters inner lives, and readings from Charlotte's letters serve as narration.  There are moments when the film's low budget are obvious, and there are several intriguing hints to aspects of the sister's lives which are never really dealt with, particularly Charlotte and Emily's time in Belgium.  I am a fan of the Brontës and, although the film is far from perfect, it is impressive and genuinely moving.  A brief coda showing the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth as it is today I found quite powerful.

   Chloe Pirrie, Charlie Murphy and Fin. Atkins in To Walk Invisible