I saw the movie Possession this weekend, and, after careful consideration, I think I liked it.
The film was released last year in select cities, and chances are your city was not selected. It received very little promotion, despite the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow starred in it. It also marked the re-emergence of Jennifer Ehle into the movie world, who hasn't been seen since playing Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. (But who can blame her for her exile--after you've played Colin Firth's love interest in a 6 hour epic, could your career get any better?) And rounding out the cast is Jeremy Northam, who was Mr. Knightly. Enough said.
The story revolves around 2 literary gurus who inadvertantly discover an illicit connection between 2 famous 18th century poets. In discovering the secret past of Ash and Lemont, the scholars (if you can believe it) actually fall in love themselves. Shocker.
Though the plot is a bit contrived, here are the highlights of the movie that make it worth watching, or at least thinking about.
1. This film is like Indiana Jones for English Majors. There are ancient documents, hidden secrets, an attempted grave robbery, and a scruffy-looking guy who doesn't shave for at least a week. The only things missing are a whip and a Nazi.
2. The female poet is called Christabel. That's a cool name.
3. The film makes an interesting point about one of my major pet peeves in the literary world, which is the questioning of the sexual orientation of every person in the Norton Anthologoies based on little or no evidence. In the movie, the modern scholars balk at the idea that Christabel could have had an affair with Ash because she lived a quiet life with a female companion, thus automaticly making her a lesbian. In the flashbacks to Christabel's life, however, these accusations seem to be poorly founded (though granted, the female companion was creepy, but more in an "I'm going to kill you in your sleep" sense).
Try watching it while dyeing Easter Eggs.
Posted by Micah Lewis at April 14, 2003 04:26 PM