Possession

Neil LaBute, 2002 (102 mins, Cert. 12A)

Neil LaBute's elegant adaptaion of A.S.Byatt's Booker Prize winning novel stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Northam, Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Ehle. A passionate affair unfolds between Maud Bailey, a young English academic, and Roland Mitchell, an upstart American scholar studying in London. Researching the work of two nineteenth century poets, they discover a batch of lost love letters, and follow a trail of clues across England to Europe, echoing the journey of the impassioned couple over a century earlier.
(Barbican Publicity)

The film foregrounds the current-day relationship, offering just the ocasional glimpse of the parallels between the rearchers and the researched. Paltrow is an unlikely academic and perhaps moves too quickly from antagonism to alliance with the younger American. The look of the film, however, is spot-on and the pacing is relaxed with a pervasive poetic mood. Enjoyable and mellow.
(Steve Fagg)

Seen: Wednesday, 18th September, 2001 (Barbican Cinema 2)