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Effie Gray (2014 movie)
Jan. 31st, 2018 08:32 pmI've been watching more movies than usual this week as a result of being sick. Today one of them was Effie Gray about the woman who was married to the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Ruskin, had her marriage annulled due to non-consummation, and later married the painter John Everett Millais. The costumes are wonderful, the actors are great, and it's a good movie. But for my main reaction:
Wow. John Ruskin. Was. An. Asshole.
I don't know exactly what his deal was, but for whatever reason he decided to marry Effie and then it turned out he was completely unprepared to deal with the reality of an actual woman. They got married when she was twenty years old and the marriage ended six years later. In the movie Ruskin neglects her as soon they get to London and becomes more callous as the movie goes on. It gets to the point where I'm surprised she didn't go completely bonkers.
It's hard to choose the peak of Ruskin's asshole-ness, but definitely in the top five comes near the end, when Effie's young sister is visiting and Ruskin says the next big book he writes will be about how wicked Effie is.
( spoilers )
Reading the Wikipedia entry on real-life Effie Gray later, it turns out Ruskin later wanted to marry a teenage girl named Rose La Touche when he was a teenager and he was in his 40s. Rose's family wrote to Effie for advice and her response can be summed up as, NO. A WORLD OF NO.
ETA 24 hours later to add a spoiler cut. It's been so long since I posted about involving spoilers that I forgot to do it!
Wow. John Ruskin. Was. An. Asshole.
I don't know exactly what his deal was, but for whatever reason he decided to marry Effie and then it turned out he was completely unprepared to deal with the reality of an actual woman. They got married when she was twenty years old and the marriage ended six years later. In the movie Ruskin neglects her as soon they get to London and becomes more callous as the movie goes on. It gets to the point where I'm surprised she didn't go completely bonkers.
It's hard to choose the peak of Ruskin's asshole-ness, but definitely in the top five comes near the end, when Effie's young sister is visiting and Ruskin says the next big book he writes will be about how wicked Effie is.
( spoilers )
Reading the Wikipedia entry on real-life Effie Gray later, it turns out Ruskin later wanted to marry a teenage girl named Rose La Touche when he was a teenager and he was in his 40s. Rose's family wrote to Effie for advice and her response can be summed up as, NO. A WORLD OF NO.
ETA 24 hours later to add a spoiler cut. It's been so long since I posted about involving spoilers that I forgot to do it!
