Effie Gray...a story behind the art

It is interesting when 2 films are released at the same time now about artists who were alive at the same time then. Compared to Mr Turner, which I have already criticised for lacking a narrative, the film Effie Gray provides us with the narrative behind John Ruskin's life, so we can appreciate the art and the people who are not only the physical models but the psychological contributors. Perhaps, it is because Emma Thompson has scripted this film to contrast upper class Victorian society with Effie's unconsumated marriage. We assume now that love and sex were the dark underbelly of a very prim and proper society; and that artists were perhaps best placed to capture and share this in their work. However, this film shares a very personal, but contrasting story in a respectful way. We see Effie, played by Dakota Fanning, try to uphold her social status in the claustrophobic family of John; he is the only cherished son, responsible for his father's legacy but emotionally ruined by his overbearing mother, played by Julie Walters. She sees a glimmer of humanity in Lady Eastlake, played by Emma Thompson, as the wife of the President of the Royal Academy, and shares her personal vulnerability. She also develops a real relationship with John Everett Millais, one of John's proteges and an accomplished pre-Raphaelite painter. I really felt for her, ignored by her husband, and increasingly adored by his best friend! So it is somewhat confusing to call this a love triangle, as history has done. However, there is some resolution as Effie seeks annulment of their marriage and she can become more than just an artist's muse.