Possession (2002)
Country: GB/US
Technical: col/Super 35 102m
Director: Neil LaBute
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Toby Stephens, Tom Hollander, Trevor Eve, Graham Crowden, Anna Massey
Synopsis:
During the centenary celebrations of the life of a Victorian poet renowned for his idyllic devotion to his wife, an American academic purloins evidence of sexual peccadilloes and researches them eagerly with the help of a provincial university professor and descendant of the mistress.
Review:
The synopsis conjures up all the overheated absurdity of this would-be French Lieutenant's Woman, a travesty of the original novel's puncturing of sexual myths. Why is it that every time Americans 'do' the British, they paint us as either uptight or eccentric and totally uncomprehending of transatlantic culture, looking askance at expressions such as 'an' all' or 'How's it hanging?'? Feigned modesty or (more likely) ignorance and laziness? A far cry from the misanthropic pessimism of its director's previous work, the affirmation of romantic love here rings hollow given the casualties involved, something the incredible prologue/epilogue in which the poet meets his unacknowledged offspring does little to efface. Stylistically, it is as arch as the brittle dialogue given to these prim English roses, with lurching pans from past to present as the remorseless investigators follow in the footsteps of their subjects.
Country: GB/US
Technical: col/Super 35 102m
Director: Neil LaBute
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Toby Stephens, Tom Hollander, Trevor Eve, Graham Crowden, Anna Massey
Synopsis:
During the centenary celebrations of the life of a Victorian poet renowned for his idyllic devotion to his wife, an American academic purloins evidence of sexual peccadilloes and researches them eagerly with the help of a provincial university professor and descendant of the mistress.
Review:
The synopsis conjures up all the overheated absurdity of this would-be French Lieutenant's Woman, a travesty of the original novel's puncturing of sexual myths. Why is it that every time Americans 'do' the British, they paint us as either uptight or eccentric and totally uncomprehending of transatlantic culture, looking askance at expressions such as 'an' all' or 'How's it hanging?'? Feigned modesty or (more likely) ignorance and laziness? A far cry from the misanthropic pessimism of its director's previous work, the affirmation of romantic love here rings hollow given the casualties involved, something the incredible prologue/epilogue in which the poet meets his unacknowledged offspring does little to efface. Stylistically, it is as arch as the brittle dialogue given to these prim English roses, with lurching pans from past to present as the remorseless investigators follow in the footsteps of their subjects.
Country: GB/US
Technical: col/Super 35 102m
Director: Neil LaBute
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Toby Stephens, Tom Hollander, Trevor Eve, Graham Crowden, Anna Massey
Synopsis:
During the centenary celebrations of the life of a Victorian poet renowned for his idyllic devotion to his wife, an American academic purloins evidence of sexual peccadilloes and researches them eagerly with the help of a provincial university professor and descendant of the mistress.
Review:
The synopsis conjures up all the overheated absurdity of this would-be French Lieutenant's Woman, a travesty of the original novel's puncturing of sexual myths. Why is it that every time Americans 'do' the British, they paint us as either uptight or eccentric and totally uncomprehending of transatlantic culture, looking askance at expressions such as 'an' all' or 'How's it hanging?'? Feigned modesty or (more likely) ignorance and laziness? A far cry from the misanthropic pessimism of its director's previous work, the affirmation of romantic love here rings hollow given the casualties involved, something the incredible prologue/epilogue in which the poet meets his unacknowledged offspring does little to efface. Stylistically, it is as arch as the brittle dialogue given to these prim English roses, with lurching pans from past to present as the remorseless investigators follow in the footsteps of their subjects.