Sylvia (2003)
aka: Ted And Sylvia

biography
directed by : Chistine Jeff
featuring : Gwyneth Paltrow - Daniel Craig - Jared Harris - Amira Casar - Andrew Havill
running time : 1 hour 50 minutes
The life of poet and novelist Sylvia Plath -- one of the most celebrated literary figures of her generation -- is brought to the screen in this controversial screen adaptation. Born in Boston, MA, in 1932, Plath (Gwyneth Paltrow) developed a precocious talent as a writer and published her first poem when she was only eight years old. That same year, tragedy introduced itself into her life as Plath was forced to confront the unexpected death of her father. In 1950, she began studying at Smith College on a literary scholarship, and while she was an outstanding student, she also began suffering from bouts of extreme depression; following her junior year, she attempted suicide for the first time. Plath survived, and, in 1955, she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to study in England at Cambridge. While in Great Britain, Plath met Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig), a respected author who would later become the British Poet Laureate; the two fell in love, and married in 1958. However, marriage, family, and a growing reputation as an important poet failed to bring Plath happiness, and as she became increasingly fascinated with death in her later poetry and her sole novel, The Bell Jar, and after Hughes left her for another woman, her depression went into a tailspin from which she would never fully recover. Sylvia was adapted in part from Birthday Letters, a collection of poems Hughes published in 1998, in which he dealt with his marriage to Plath in print for the first time.

Sylvia is an intelligent and respectful film that's not a whole lot of fun. It appears that the filmmakers tried to be fair-minded and avoid overt sensationalism when depicting Plath's troubled life. But the result is a glum, staid, and emotionally inaccessible movie that doesn't offer any great insights into Plath. The acting is generally good, including fine supporting performances by Jared Harris as Plath's editor and friend Al Alvarez, Blythe Danner as her mother Aurelia, and Michael Gambon as her neighbor Professor Thomas. Craig gives an effectively understated performance as Plath's husband Hughes, although the character remains somewhat enigmatic throughout the film. Meanwhile, Paltrow does a commendable job of absorbing herself fully into the lead role. She gives a nuanced performance and conveys Plath's fragility and volatility without resorting to excessive scenery chewing or stepping out of character to milk sympathy from the audience. Unfortunately, Plath does not come across as a particularly engaging character; it doesn't help that Paltrow doesn't have much opportunity to express warmth or humor, particularly in the latter part of the film, or that we get little sense of her relationship with her children or whatever joy she might have gotten out of her writing. The movie does a good job of showing that Plath was unhappy, but it does little more than wallow in tastefully presented misery.