To Walk Invisible

Absorbing and with authentic Yorkshire vernacular in parts.

Each sister was given their own character: Anne seemed to be the placid one,Charlotte was a feisty little firecracker while Emily was emotional and quick to temper. I admired all three characters.

I believe the rock outcrop on the moors where Emily stood in the film is Ponden Kirk near Haworth - this is a pre-Christian holy place and in Victorian times was where young couples would crawl through a hole in the base - this would mean they would be wed within a year. A fitting place to film on the moors which provided such inspiration to them.

A welcome and unique addition to dramas about the Bronte sisters who provided some of the finest writing in the English language.

To Walk Invisible: The Brontë Sisters (2016 TV Movie) was written and directed by Sally Wainwright.

The history of the Brontë sisters is fascinating, and certainly worth a great movie. This isn't that movie.

Branwell Brontë was a wastrel and an alcoholic. Surely his behavior was detrimental to the life and career of each of his sisters. However, director Wainwright clearly became fascinated with Branwell, and the movie is really his biopic.

Adam Nagaitis, who portrays Branwell, is an excellent actor. He inhabits the role, and it is a pleasure to watch him act.

However, the subtitle of this film is "The Brontë Sisters." In fact, they all play a supporting role to their brother.

If you want to know more about Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Brontë, you will have to check Wikipedia. This movie won't help much.

The film has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I didn't think it was nearly that good, and rated it 6.

I've read all the Bronte novels, studied Emily's poetry in college, and been to Haworth several times. (Tip: if you ever visit, don't skip the hike to Top Withens-the place Emily based Wuthering Heights on. You won't get the true Bronte experience unless you hike on the moors.) I've sat next to Charlotte and Emily's graves and tried to imagine life in that place in the 19th century. This movie encapsulated and synthesized every emotion, thought, and feeling I experienced while in Haworth, at the parsonage museum, reading, and hiking on the moors. It positively reeks of authenticity. The sisters form the nucleus of the story while the ancillary characters orbit them at just the right distance. Their quiet strength and desperation depicts the plight of three women smarter than anyone around them in an age when their brains were considered by men to be more similar to monkeys than their own. Each sister is fully actuated and differentiated as a stand-alone character, individual in her own right. I finished the movie with a determination to visit their home again and re-read all of their work. How many movies inspire their viewers to travel several thousand miles, spend several thousand dollars, and invest scores of hours in reading? I loved that the movie required something from the viewer. You can't watch this film passively. It takes scrutiny, concentration, and contemplation; in other words, things most modern movies don't require in the least. That's why this movie stays with you days after viewing it. No wonder I forget almost everything about many movies I see hours after watching them; they demand nothing but sensational response, something that ebbs almost immediately after arousal. My one complaint is in the sound mixing. The background music swells with such amplitude in places that the dialogue is almost impossible to make out without closed captioning. I eventually put in my Bluetooth ear buds to help me discern the dialogue (admittedly, Yorkshire accents are tough for Americans to decipher in the first place, but as I mentioned earlier, the effort required helps galvanize the viewer into deeper concentration and engagement). Bravo PBS. You rarely disappoint.

I must admit I was dubious at yet another film of the lives of the Brontes.I needn't have been,this was an excellent production. Great art/location and costume work. The acting was slow,subtle and not over the top or "chocolate boxy" (as is with some Bronte biogs) The actors were excellently and evenly cast.Too often the sisters are too pretty and therefore lose authenticity. The sisters were quite plain,but feisty,and their characters reacted well against each other. It showed us (more than is normal) the complexities of mid Victorian life and morals. The two hours passed very quickly.

WHY? After the on screen credits,telling us how and when the sisters died.We went into the Parsonage front garden,and up the side path into the modern gift shop of the Parsonage Museum, and the camera panned around it for 5 minutes(showing you all the stock),quite why this was I cannot see.It succeeded in killing the atmosphere that had been achieved in the preceding 2 hours.

But one must approach this with a keen understanding that this saga is not as much about the titular Bronte Sisters as it is heavily devoted to the story of their troubled brother Bramwell, and the devastation he often imposed upon the family, the sacrifices they had to make on his behalf and the struggles they endured dealing with his addictions.

The story itself is stunning; Capturing the beauty of the period with incredible delicacy. I have scored this film high, because it was so well written and powerfully executed by the writer/director who I hope we have the opportunity to see do more material of this magnitude in the future. Well worth the watch for anyone who is a history buff.