Miss Marx
Mrs Marx follows the tumultuous life of Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx, with a story bookended by death.
Eleanor Marx, played by Romola Garai, and known to her family as ‘Tussy’, was the youngest daughter of German philosopher and socialist revolutionary Karl Marx. The film opens with Eleanor giving a moving eulogy, and relatively informing summary, of her father’s life and her view of the idyllic union between her parents. At this funeral, the most romantic of places, she meets her soon to be ‘husband’ Edward Aveling (Patric Kennedy). This less than traditional meeting, with Eleanor’s warp view of love and trust, sets the tone for the relationship. Edward and Elanor could not be married in any legal sense as Edward was still married to another woman. Unsurprisingly this is not the last red flag we see in Edwards’s character.
The film gives insight into the family and personal relationships that surrounded Eleanor in her relatively short life and how these relationships shaped and influenced her activism. As the daughter of the father of the socialist movement Eleanor continued to work to free the working class, but with particular focus on feminism and women’s rights. With the way the men in her life continue to mistreat and disappoint her it is unsurprising that her work would take the feminist focus, being one of the first to link feminism and socialism. While her academic intelligence is unmatched, her head and her heart never quite agree, and she is continually torn between the successes and failures of her private and public lives.
Italian writer and director Susanna Nicchiarelli certainly took an interesting approach to portraying this story. Within the film there are seemingly random moments of breaking the fourth wall and cuts of archival black and white footage with modern day punk rock blasting in the background. Besides these inconsistencies we rarely see the protagonist outside of the home, with minor visits to factory sites, local and abroad, Nicchiarelli seems to lean into the idea of a drawing room play. The film is wildly less provocative than its protagonist could have allowed.
The heroine of this film both as character and actor is Romola Garai. Romola allows the audience to really understand Eleanor as a victim of her situation. The toxic relationship she endured with Edward leading to public criticism of her private life and adding to the uphill battle she had to bring the feminist movement to the forefront.
With the staunch progression of both the socialist and feminist movements in our modern society it’s disappointing to see this film to fall so flat. Perhaps with a more visually and politically seductive re-enactment we could have seen greater audience reaction to the story of the great Elanor Marx.
