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Review Uploaded
09/13/02

1 hr. 42 mins.
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle
Directed by: Neil LaBute

Frank's film tip: "Possession" is only 9/10th of the cinematic law--too bad because Neil LaBute should have had better percentages with his lukewarm academic love story

Neil LaBute is a challenging and adventurous filmmaker in the sense that he likes to assume different skins for his movie projects. In the brutally captivating film “In the Company of Men”, LaBute toyed around with the sexual politics of misguided masculinity at the expense of fragile feminine sensibilities. He then switched gears and handed movie audiences the lighter but nevertheless disturbing mainstream off-kilter comedy “Nurse Betty” about a delusional young woman’s twisted fixation with a television heartthrob. Now the writer-director flexes his versatile artistic muscles by serving up an intrinsically well-intentioned but utterly stiff romantic drama “Possession”.

Adapted from the highly-touted A.S. Byatt 1990 novel, “Possession” is a moody and sophisticated showcase about the passionate connection between two straight-laced academic colleagues and the Victorian letter-reading experiences they share that ultimately release their pent up inhibitions. Although the concept looks intriguing on paper, LaBute fails to completely capture the intimacy of such a happenstance because the movie does not elevate itself beyond its listlessness. Somehow, the chipper romanticism of Byatt’s imaginative pages doesn’t transcend easily on the big screen. Consequently, “Possession” is ambitious and mildly enchanting in its presentation as a revolving quaint modern age/period piece melodrama, but the film is also forged in a lackadaisical quagmire that it simply cannot overcome.

Self-assured American scholar and research assistant Roland Michell (played by dependable LaBute mainstay Aaron Eckhart from “In the Company of Men”) is abroad in modern-day England completing his studies under the tutelage of a demanding English professor. Michell is relentlessly bored by his several research-related tasks such as shelving books, counting index cards, etc. The hunky bookworm would probably rather watch water drip from his faucet as opposed to being a slave to his studious albeit boring chores. One day, Michell comes across a bunch of seemingly authentic love letters that were hidden in back of a book. The correspondences were based on Randolph Henry Ash’s (the literary subject matter in question—also most notably Queen Victoria’s poet laureate) treasured writings to his beloved mistress Christobel LaMotte, an unconventional free spirit poet whom serves as the inspiration for contemporary women’s study courses. Michell is both puzzled and invigorated by this unique find. Basically, legend has it that Ash was notoriously devoted to his wife. But if these adulterous letters are the real deal, then Ash and all his so-called proper historical factoids could cause a scandalous reaction in some high-falutin’ academic circles. Also, Michell could possibly become the sensation behind the unexpected discovery of the mysterious love affair that may have transpired between the dicey duo Ash and LaMotte.

Enter Maud Bailey (Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow in her umpteenth turn as a dignified stiff-lipped English muffin). Her demeanor is supposed to be that of a prissy-missy scholarly feminist prototype whose only real turn-on is her expertise on the liberating antics of Lady LaMotte. Together, the tenacious twosome set out to unravel the elusive mystery behind the mythical merriment of their catalysts’ forbidden dalliances. As an erotic activity disguised as a belabored homework assignment, both Michell and Bailey feverishly browse through century-old letters in hopes of detecting any clues that may lead to the alleged pulsating union that Ash and LaMotte may have engaged in so playfully.

“Possession” demonstrates its gimmicky story arc by systematically switching back and forth the time lines by contrasting the two sets of couples and watching them gradually fall into the clutches of each other’s unassuming emotional arms. In the past, we travel back to the Victorian era where Ash (Jeremy Northam) and LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle) easily convey their loving attachment as the supposedly aloof sleuths Maud and Roland go through their voyeuristic motions while the audience second guesses when the inevitable moment of their sensual chemistry will finally kick in. The fun, you see, is when the film invites us to witness how these old school textbook honeybunnies (naturally Ash and LaMotte) serve as an intentioned model for icing down the frigid and repressed walls of the emotionally detached tandem researching them.

“Possession” is well-meaning in its insightful message about the complications of love in an advanced and accessible society as opposed to the simplicity and innocence of romance in an earlier age where devotion knew no restrictions. If anything, LaBute rehashes this passé notion a la 1981’s “French Lieutenant’s Woman” as the blueprint for helming this graceful but fleetingly spotty romancer. The filmmaker needs to be commended for tackling a tricky project where the radiance of Byatt’s words seem like an insurmountable undertaking to transform on the big screen. And frankly, this was the case. From a visual aspect, LaBute couldn’t capture the essence of the spark that kept readers spellbound in terms of their animated imagination for these boundless lovers through print. Sure, the English countryside is grand thanks to the vibrant cinematography and there’s an intermittent atmospheric glow about the occasional plodding of this movie, but LaBute just cannot compete in formulating this awkwardly pedestrian lovelorn session on his celluloid canvas.

The film boasts a top-notch cast who definitely rise to the occasion. Paltrow does a decent job as a wound-up bookish beauty that is as tightly wrapped up as the old-fashioned bun she sports on her nicely coiffed noggin. And Eckhart, although looking more like a scruffy GQ playboy than a well-read brainiac, continues to do the job as Labute’s go-to solid leading man in some of the moviemaker’s high-minded complex fare. But then again, there’s something that’s not so right about Paltrow and Eckhart’s casting—probably because they seem so polished and preserved to play meticulous-minded bookends being victimized by a millennium-style malaise in their own lackluster social lives.

If you let “Possession” grow on you, it’s a winsome yet flawed endeavor. By the way, now is the ideal time to actually read the book first before seeing the movie. After all, even the talented and courageous camera lens of LaBute couldn’t hold a candle to Byatt’s prize-winning creative pages.

Frank rates this film: stars