Possession Review
by Rose 'Bams' Cooper (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)September 3rd, 2002
'3BlackChicks Review...'
POSSESSION (2002)
Rated PG-13; running time 102 minutes
Studio: Focus (USA Films)
Genre: Romantic Drama
Seen at: Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan)
Official site: http://www.possession-movie.com/
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0256276
Written by: Laura Jones, Neil LaBute (based on the novel by A.S. Byatt) Directed by: Neil LaBute
Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Toby Stephens, Holly Aird, Lena Headey, Trevor Eve, Tom Hickey, Graham Crowden, Anna Massey, Georgia Mackenzie, Tom Hollander
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
Review URL:
http://www.3blackchicks.com/2002reviews/bamspossession.html
I reckon the best thing I can say about POSSESSION is, it's kind of like THE RED VIOLIN - without most of the interesting bits.
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
Roland Mitchell (Aaron Eckhart) is a Fellow from America and researcher of Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash; Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a British academic who specializes in the life of Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte. Mitchell and Bailey reluctantly come together during the centennial celebration of Ash's love poems to his wife Ellen. The duo aim to find out if there is a connection between the two poets, after Mitchell surreptitiously finds hand-written letters from Ash that suggests that Ash and LaMotte may have shared more than an abiding love of the written word.
Meanwhile, back in the early 1900's...through a series of flashbacks, Ash (Jeremy Northam) and LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle) are brought to life, caught up in the tangled web they weaved. Shortly after meeting the stunning Christabel, Ash is ready to possess her wholly. But not so fast: there's Ash's wife Ellen (Holly Aird) to consider - not to mention LaMotte's female lover, Blanche (Lena Headey). And back to the future, Mitchell and Bailey have issues of their own to contend with, including Bailey's on-again/off-again lover - and jealous fellow academic - Fergus Wolff (Toby Stephens).
THE UPSHOT
Peanut butter and chocolate. Sunshine and blue skies. Mysteries about early 1900's poets and moviegoers. Some things go naturally together...and some things, don't.
[Insert standard disclaimer about how Fillum Purists who get huffy about how I dare criticize Art Flicks, can bite me.]
Here's the thing: taken separately, the two stories in POSSESSION might've been a lot more interesting. I could certainly see art film aficionados enjoying the story of two star-cross'd poets, doomed in their love by bad timing, fate, and somewhat different sexual orientations. And even if the story Paltrow and Eckhart were stuck in seemed contrived, I'm sure someone could've written a tangible, interesting film they could appear in together. Given a more feasible setting in which to work, they'd make at least a serviceable duo.
POSSESSION was not that feasible setting. The silliness of the modern-day storyline dragged down the beauty of the poets' storyline, to the point where neither was worth staying with to the bitter end. Every time Eckhart's character started getting giddy about Solving! The! Mystery!, he reminded me of Freddy from the old SCOOBY DOO cartoons [bite me again: I was a kid. I didn't know any better].
To be sure, the main actors involved - Paltrow, Eckhart, Northam and Ehle - gave it a valiant try, with Eckhart and especially the radiant Ehle standing out amongst the foursome for me. And with his director's hat firmly in place, Neil LaBute succeeded in making 1900's England look and feel like a place where romance, forbidden or no, could bloom.
But there's that thing with the flashforwards again. Had this movie started, and stayed, in the past, I'd doubt that there would've been derisive snickers from the audience whenever co-writer LaBute reached awkwardly to the present to concoct a tenuous-to-the-point-of-opaqueness connection. Call it a hunch, but I don't think that was the planned reaction.
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
Yes, I know it's based on a novel, and no, I haven't read that novel, and no, I have no *intentions* on reading that novel. All I know is that, as a movie, POSSESSION failed to grab me.
POSSESSION rating: yellowlight
Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
3BlackChicks Review
Entertainment Reviews With Flava!
Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
EMAIL: [email protected]
http://www.3blackchicks.com/
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