Rating: PG13
Genre:
Romance
Theatrical Release: 08/16/2002(USA
Release Date: 02/11/2003
SubTitles: Espanol
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 103 Minutes
Flags: Adult Language, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios
In
Neil LaBute's film adaptation of
A.S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning 1990 novel,
Aaron Eckhart (who has starred in all of
LaBute's films) plays
Roland Michell, an American academic researcher, working in London, who discovers some important letters written by a famous Victorian poet,
Randolph Henry Ash (
Jeremy Northam [
Gosford Park]).
Ash was presumed to have been totally devoted to his wife, but
Roland finds letters written to another unnamed woman, and soon determines that the intended recipient was another, less well-known poet,
Christabel LaMotte (
Jennifer Ehle of
Sunshine).
Roland contacts
Maud Bailey (
Gwyneth Paltrow), an expert on
LaMotte's life and work, who tells him that
LaMotte couldn't have had an affair with
Ash because she lived most of her life with a female companion,
Blanche Glover (
Lena Headey), in what was apparently a romantic relationship. Despite
Maud's skepticism, the two begin to investigate, and uncover a wealth of information about the affair between the two poets. Period scenes of the illicit relationship between
Ash and
LaMotte are intercut with the contemporary investigation of the two academics.
Roland and
Maud initially fight their attraction to each other, but as the pair find more evidence of the historical and tragic romance, they find themselves overcoming their own resistance to romantic entanglement.
Possession was kicked around as a film project for a long time before
LaBute became interested. Director
Sydney Pollack originally was slated to film a screenplay by
David Henry Hwang (
M. Butterfly), who receives a credit on the finished film. When
LaBute took over the project years later, he reworked the screenplay with
Laura Jones (
The Portrait of a Lady).
~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
;)
