THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (12A, 111 mins) *** Starring Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Joanna Scanlan, Michelle Fairley, Kristin Scott Thomas, Tom Hollander, Perdita Weeks, Amanda Hale, Tom Burke. Director: Ralph Fiennes.

In Greek mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses, who embodied the source of knowledge and the arts.

In modern times, a muse has been a collaborator, usually a woman, whose presence has provided a creative spark for artists to produce some of their greatest work.

Based on the book by Claire Tomalin, The Invisible Woman charts the fragile relationship between one of the titans of English literature and his muse.

Oscar-nominated actor Ralph Fiennes juggles responsibilities behind and in front of the camera, opening in 1885 Margate, where Nelly Robinson (Jones) is a school teacher with a doting husband (Burke).

He is powerless to stop Nelly taking long walks on the beach, wrestling with the ghosts of her past.

The film rewinds to 1850s Manchester, where Nelly is an aspiring actress in a family of performers headed by her domineering mother, Frances Ternan (Scott Thomas).

Frances keeps a close eye on her daughters Maria (Weeks) and Fannie (Hale), and the least talented of the brood, 18-year-old Nelly.

Mixing in the theatrical circles, Nelly encounters socially awkward writer Charles Dickens (Fiennes), who neglects his long-suffering wife, Catherine (Scanlan).

Dickens’s fascination with Nelly develops into something far deeper, but she is forced to lurk in the shadows for fear of tainting his reputation.

The Invisible Woman is a well-crafted if emotionally stifled account of doomed love and its manifestation on the pages of Dickens’s works.

Fiennes and Jones deliver solid performances, but their on-screen chemistry is almost as muted as the colour palette, while Scanlan is magnificent as the wife, who begs her husband to come to his senses.

“Don’t be foolish. You cannot keep her a secret,” she snaps.

A quotation from A Tale Of Two Cities, displayed at the beginning of the film, argues otherwise, confirming that Dickens was a man who revelled in the “profound secret and mystery” of his fellow man.

If only Fiennes’s film revealed a few more of them.