Review
Review Date: 25-August-02
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK
Possession (2002)
The screen adaptation of A. S. Byatt's 1990 book "Possession" has several things to recommend it, including talented actors, gorgeous European settings, a fine soundtrack, some swoony romantic scenes, and a detective story in which one clue leads to another in an ongoing series of revelations. However, taken as a whole, the film is a rather disjointed experience that doesn't fully satisfy. With not one but two love affairs to account for, the weakness of one impairs the success of the other, to the detriment of the movie as a whole. And the reason for this may be, quite simply, that modern love stories are not nearly as entertaining as historical ones.
The tale begins in present-day London, when American scholar Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) discovers two century-old letters in the leaves of a book in the British Library. The letters were written by the renowned R. H. Ash, who served as poet laureate to Queen Victoria, and they seem to suggest that the married Ash may have had a love affair which has never before come to light. Following this lead, Roland enlists the help of a British professor, Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is a specialist on Christabel LaMotte, a poetess and potential recipient of Ash's letters. Together, the dons trace the progress of the hidden romance as it is revealed to them through letters and other documents, and to us, the viewers, through flashbacks. (Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle play Ash and LaMotte, and I must say she looks remarkably like Meryl Streep.) As the investigation continues, the modern scholars are swept up in the passion of their subjects and find themselves falling in love.
The story moves back and forth between the modern and historical tales and does a nice job linking the two, not so much thematically as literally --- there is the suggestion that the events of the past are actually dictating or at least affecting those of the present (which is one of my all-time favorite notions). But the courtship of Roland and Maud pales in comparison to that of the poets; whereas I was fascinated and touched by the trials and emotions of Ash and LaMotte, I didn't care one way or the other whether Maud and Roland found happiness in each other's arms. On a superficial but nevertheless cinematically important level, the modern story just doesn't look as romantic: Maud's pinstripe pajamas do not convey the passion of LaMotte's lace-up nightdress, nor does her cool, Jackie O wardrobe inspire the imagination like LaMotte's long, hooded cape. Similarly, the world-weary exchanges between Maud and Roland --- as they're flitting about in her Saab or reading faxes in her stylish flat --- have none of the intrinsic beauty of Ash and LaMotte's torrid letter writing. People sometimes mock stories for being "bodice rippers" and such, but there's a reason why storytellers who would have you swoon place their heroes and heroines in historical settings: some kind of poetry in life has been lost to us in our technological, clinical, shameless age.
But the superiority of the movie's historical romance is not just skin deep. Since every great affair requires some obstacle to overcome, both pairs of lovers are given roadblocks, but these, too, only highlight the fact that the Victorian era was more suited to produce a great passion than our own. Ash and LaMotte, though they allow their minds, hearts, and bodies to pursue the most intense experience, nevertheless are hindered by the social constraints of their era. They can never openly be in love, raise children, or grow old together. In addition, they each have someone who loves them at home, he a wife of whom he is genuinely fond, and she a lesbian lover and companion. Maud and Roland, on the other hand, have no social or personal constraints other than their own self-imposed, thoroughly modern angst. For reasons not clearly explained, he has sworn off relationships, while she makes every effort to maintain a frigid, bitchy schoolmarm persona to ward off all advances; both are very forthcoming in telling each other that romance is simply out of the question. You feel for Ash and LaMotte --- the depth of their passion and their inability to fully realize it --- while you just wish Maud and Roland would get over it, already, and stop making their lives seem so tortured and difficult.
Director Neil LaBute is a wry, interesting guy (judging from the eclectic mix of his previous films), and I have a sneaking suspicion that the shallowness of the present-day lovers, as compared to Ash and LaMotte, was not lost on him. Certainly we are meant to be interested in both couples, but repeated references to the fact that Maud literally will not let her hair down suggest that one of the points of the film may be what I consider its weakness, i.e., that jaded, analytical moderns would profit by coming in contact with the forbidden but undeniable passions of a less tolerant age. Be that as it may, as a scholarly detective story, "Possession" is entertaining enough; but as a memorable romance, it only halfway succeeds.
Copyright © 2002 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.
