Effie Gray

There may be corsets, posh frocks and grand manor houses, but Effie Gray is far from your typical period romp. Scripted by (and co-starring) Emma Thompson, it follows Dakota Fanning as impoverished teen Effie, who’s wed to snooty art critic John Ruskin (Greg Wise) despite the age gap.

Part Victorian biopic, part domestic drama, Richard Laxton’s painterly film combines the gothic shadows of Hitchcock’s Rebecca with the gut-wrenching romance of A Royal Affair. The result is dark and offbeat, but as a murky anti-romance, Gray is undeniably effective.