Possession (2002) (PG-13) ★★★

Review Date: August 16th, 2002

A literary mystery unfolds in both the present day and the past as two academics search for a love connection between two Victorian poets.

Story

Based on the Booker Prize-winning novel of the same title by A.S. Byatt, Possession follows Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) as they uncover a secret relationship between two Victorian poets, Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle) and Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam). Contemporary scholarship had pegged LaMotte as an early lesbian feminist and Ash as a happily married member of the new upper-middle class, but when Roland discovers a love letter from Ash to a woman who's not his wife, the upstart American scholar can't resist tracking down the object of the poet's affections. When Roland discovers that the love interest might have been LaMotte, he enlists the help of noted LaMotte scholar--and descendant--Maud, and together they track the lovers' progress from drawing rooms to billets doux to a month-long tryst in Yorkshire, England. As they search for the story of long-past love, they discover something of that emotion in the present as well, although the relationship between Roland and Maud seems almost antiseptic compared to the warmth and passion between Ash and LaMotte. Still, both stories are wonderfully intriguing; it's just too bad that the novel's subtle lyricism proves difficult to translate to the screen.

Acting

While the contrast between the heat of the past and the cool of the present is partly the point of both the film and novel, Eckhart and Paltrow take the theme of modern-day emotional distance a bit too far. They never really give the audience a sense that their connection is real, so the parts of the film that focus on them fall a bit flat. Nonetheless, Paltrow is well cast as the cool scholar Maud, and she gives an adequate, if uninspired, performance in the role. Of course, there's little to get inspired about in her co-star Eckhart, who displays an inappropriately flippant demeanor as the American scholar/wannabe poet. Despite his efforts to charm, the character comes off as wooden, and there's very little chemistry between him and Paltrow, a fact that's just highlighted by the intensity of the fire burning between Northam and Ehle. Their scenes make the movie; it's pure magic watching two of the most talented actors out there today enact the period portions of the film. Northam absolutely sizzles, and Ehle is every bit as good as Meryl Streep in The French Lieutenant's Woman--in fact, she very much resembles that film's main character, Sarah, although the production notes make no mention of what seems an obvious influence.

Direction

In making Possession, director and screenwriter Neil LaBute took on a gargantuan task. Despite a few minor omissions (in the novel, Maud doesn't just wear her hair tightly up; she hides it beneath a turban) and one major gaff (in the novel, Roland is British, not a swashbuckling American upstart), the movie captures the spirit, if not the form, of the book. Admirably, LaBute resists the temptation to dwell on the philosophical and chooses instead to focus on the plot, a decision that truly benefits the film. The pacing is excellent; the story never loses steam or rambles on and on, which must be a real risk in a story about academics. The transitions between the Victorian and modern segments are finely tuned, if derivative, and they build gracefully as the movie goes on; the nearer the sleuths come to solving the mystery, the more closely entwined the past and the present become until in the end they come together, metaphorically at least, in a surprising twist.

Bottom Line

Possession isn't perfect, but the effort alone is worthy of praise. See it for the quality of the story and the beauty of the period segments, but to get the real emotion of the tale, read the book.