Possession (2002)

Modern love and classic romantic passion meet in this lush adaptation of A.S. Byatt's brilliant novel. Academics Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) and Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) are experts on the work of two different Victorian poets. As they pursue a possible connection between their subjects, the two sleuths begin to stumble toward a romance of their own. Though it necessarily loses some of the depth of Byatt's original, Possession is a worthy adaptation, faithful to the book in both story and spirit. Director Neil LaBute uses clever and visually elegant methods of switching back and forth between time periods, subtly contrasting the prickly moderns and the swoony Victorians without making either pair seem unappealing. The movie also does an excellent job of capturing the exhilaration (and the politics) of intellectual discovery, and feels truly romantic without ever getting icky. Though Paltrow and Eckhart both succeed as the modern leads, the real standouts are Jeremy Northam as Randolph Henry Ash and Jennifer Ehle as Christabel LaMotte. Their passion gives the movie its romantic core and makes the whole search worthwhile. --Ali Davis Amazon.com

 POSSESSION
POSSESSION (1999), set in England and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, and Jennifer Ehle, is an interwoven tale connecting the past with the present. Director Neil LaBute does a terrific job of mixing a period piece with contemporary times, weaving it into a seamless work of art. Based on the novel by A.S. Byatt, the film delineates the tale of two academic poets in contemporary London who set out to discover secrets of the past that are intricately tied to the present. In their search for the truth, the couple in the present piece together a love story from the past. In doing so, they find that they also serve a vital piece of history in the making. April 24, 2008

 Undiscovered gem
A Film I first saw in a little independent cinema in the Somerset city of Bath, expecting nothing, but finding my heart bursting from its seams as the film unfolded.

A young American apprentice (Aaron Eckhart) finds himself amongst the snobbery of English literature circles, struggling for a space in the sun of acknowledgement, when he discovers secret love letters written by a Victorian poet (Jeremy Northam). Our American apprentice teams up with an English scholar (Gwyneth Paltrow), and they find themselves falling in love as the Victorian love story of the poet and his secret lover unfolds.

Possession is a tender and beautiful film: both love stories - modern and Victorian - interwoven and wonderfully performed by Eckhart, Paltrow, Northam and Ehle; its cinematography and costume design painting it beautifully, and finished off in Gabriel Yared's moving score.

It is one of my all time favourites. December 20, 2007

 Possession - the movie
I had rented this movie several times and decided I liked it enough to own it. I really fell in love with the intertwined stories - very moving and continues to hold my interest. The couple in present time are researching the couple from an older time. Each segment seems true to the characters and the characters from the past (the actors are great) are very convincing. I found this lovely. I also decided to buy the book, which is a best seller, because I wanted to embrace it at a higher level. November 24, 2007

 Brilliant book dumbed down for film
The book, Possession by A.S. Byatt, was one of the best novels I have read in years. Unfortunately, all of the themes that make it a wonderful novel - feminism, the expectations of society, British reserve, a woman's struggle between love and work, and much more - do not translate well to a movie, and of course don't appeal at all to the modern American moviegoer. The story lines were "dumbed down" to fit the just-under-2-hours pace of a movie, ignoring all of the subtleties that made these characters believable in print.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart have no chemistry between them, and that only underscored the fact that their "struggle" to stay away from each other was poorly written in the film. Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle do sizzle, and made up the only watchable parts of this movie.

If you loved the book, keep it in your head and ignore the film version. If you want a light romance, stick with "Sleepless in seattle" and the like. October 15, 2007

 A Fascinating Film
This is a mature, intelligent film (based upon the fictional novel (by the same title) by A.S. Byatt) starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle. Aaron Eckhart plays Roland Mitchell, an American graduate student working at a museum in London who stumbles upon a previously unaccounted for original letter, written by the (fictional) Victorian poet laureate, Randolph Ash (played by Jeremy Northam). The particular letter is of a rather racy nature and turns out to be directed to another poet of the day, Christabel LaMotte (played by Jennifer Ehle, who is the aunt, thrice-removed of (present-day) gender studies professor, Dr. Maud Bailey-played by Gwyneth Paltrow). In an effort to verify the connection that seemingly existed between the two 19th Century poets, Roland consults Maud, who is an authority on LaMotte's writings and personal life. As a result, the two find themselves caught up in an independent investigation into the relationship between the two poets and unearth the startling discovery that Ash and LaMotte were actually lovers.

The reluctant romance that ensues between Roland and Maud as they doggedly pursue their investigation is contrasted interestingly by the flashback moments in the film of the similarly love-shy, Victorians. Northam and Ehle, two veteran period actors, shine in their respective roles and the strong chemistry shared between the two is electric. The set designs and sumptuous costuming (particularly true of the Victorian shots in the movie) are lovely and help transport the viewer between the present-day parts of the movie and those which occur during the middle of the 19th Century.

"Possession" is a fascinating, suspenseful story about romance and inhibitions. While Roland and Maud tenaciously pursue their investigative work, the viewer also becomes acquainted with the political and highly competitive nature of scholarly study in the world of academia. As is normally the case in regard to matters associated with intellectual property, big money rides on the results; Roland's and Maud's joint research draws the attention of less-than-scrupulous colleagues, who launch their own investigation in an effort to also re-write literary history.

"Possession" will appeal to anyone who enjoys a love story or detective story, since both elements are combined beautifully in this film. The acting is top-notch and the story is believable and cleverly presented.
September 24, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...