'Effie Gray': EW review

With a script by Emma Thompson, you might expect Effie Gray to have the same period-piece poignancy as her 1995 take on Sense and Sensibility. No such luck. Dakota Fanning plays the title character, a naive newlywed who’s trapped in a loveless marriage to Victorian art critic John Ruskin (Greg Wise). There’s a hint of a forceful proto-feminist story in here somewhere, but director Richard Laxton lets that message (and any compelling drama) slip through his fingers. C+