Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture

POSSESSION

by Staff writers
22 December 2002
Reading Time: 2 mins read
A A

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam
Director: Neil LaBute
Rated: M15+

For those of us who loved A.S. Byatt’s Booker Prize-winning novel Possession, there is one major change in this screen adaptation that will drive us nuts.

In the book, Byatt has Roland Michell as a working-class English lad with brains to burn. It sets up a terrific study in class snobbery as he has to deal with the upper class academic Maud Bailey.

But US director Neil LaBute decided to turn Michell into a dishevelled, loud and visiting American scholar.

Michell (Aaron Eckhart) is an assistant to Professor Blackadder (Tom Hickey), who is the world authority on the Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam).

Ash was poet laureate in Queen Victoria’s court. Michell discovers some of Ash’s letters in the British Library which indicates that the publicly proper poet may have had an affair. Michell theorises that the liaison could have been with Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle), a lesser-known poet of the same period. Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the world’s expert on LaMotte and together she and Michell uncover the truth.

This very handsome film is big on romance and soft on drama. Where Byatt set up a parallel in class confllct between Michell and Bailey and to a lesser degree between Ash and LaMotte, LaBute gives an overly sentimental reading to the Victorian love story, and proposes a colonial conflict between a yank and a Pom for the contemporary tale.

The performances are all pleasing with Paltrow rendering again a very convincing English accent. Aaron Eckhart has great screen presence, but Jeremy Northam’s Ash lacks the fear of exposure that the Queen’s poet would have risked if he was found out. Jennifer Ehle and Lena Headey, as her long-time companion Blanche, are perfectly cast.

There are clumsy narrative set-ups in the book and the film which does not help sell the believability of the story, like Christabel’s room being undisturbed for 100 years.

Furthermore, as the film progresses it is hard to see where Maud’s reputation comes from as some fairly big gaps appear in her supposedly encyclopaedic knowledge about LaMotte.

Related Stories

Carrying the spirit of Christmas in our hearts every day, Terry Lees writes

NSW euthanasia laws come into effect as bishops release guide for those accompanying Catholics considering euthanasia

Pope Francis’ trip to climate conference in Dubai cancelled due to ongoing illness

Possession is a charming but not gripping tale of love and intrigue that could fill the bill during a long hot summer’s afternoon.

Previous Post

THE GURU

Next Post

Priest celebrates high Mass

Staff writers

Related Posts

Pope Francis: Advent reminds us it’s never too late to begin again
Faith

Carrying the spirit of Christmas in our hearts every day, Terry Lees writes

30 November 2023
Doctors make ‘dramatic mistakes’, physician warns ahead of Queensland euthanasia vote
Australia

NSW euthanasia laws come into effect as bishops release guide for those accompanying Catholics considering euthanasia

29 November 2023
‘Don’t be afraid’ pope tells young people at ‘Catholic Woodstock’
News

Pope Francis’ trip to climate conference in Dubai cancelled due to ongoing illness

29 November 2023
Next Post

Priest celebrates high Mass

Sperm case ruling backed

Innocent victims

Popular News

  • Nominations open for Youth Leader Awards for Brisbane archdiocese

    Nominations open for Youth Leader Awards for Brisbane archdiocese

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Angela Moore reflects on her first year as a principal

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Two men ordained permanent deacons for Brisbane

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • NSW euthanasia laws come into effect as bishops release guide for those accompanying Catholics considering euthanasia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Francis’ trip to climate conference in Dubai cancelled due to ongoing illness

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping