Not the last word on the subject by any means, but it is a solid entry into the canon that sensibly resists beatification or crucifixion of the Ariel poet.
Sylvia (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:124
Fresh:45
Rotten:79
Average Rating:5.3/10
Consensus: This biopic about Sylvia Plath doesn't rise above the level of highbrow melodrama.
Theatrical Release:30-01-2004
Synopsis: Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Sylvia as legendary American author and poet Sylvia Plath, opposite Daniel Craig as British Poet Laureate Edward (Ted) Hughes. Sylvia explores the... Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Sylvia as legendary American author and poet Sylvia Plath, opposite Daniel Craig as British Poet Laureate Edward (Ted) Hughes. Sylvia explores the source of creative genius, and love in all its passions. Ted and Sylvia were a sensual, volatile, and brilliant married couple who emerged as two of the most influential writers of the 20th century. The film begins in 1956. Sylvia is in England on a Fulbright Scholarship when she meets Ted. The attraction is immediate and mutual. It is a meeting not only of the minds, but of an intense physicality as well. Within four months, they are married. When her studies are completed, Sylvia is offered a teaching post back in America. She accepts, and the couple relocates. A working wife, Sylvia must also tend to her unique voice or risk losing it. The newly published Ted attracts the attention of the literary world, along with the attentions of admiring women. Retuning to England in the late 1959, Sylvia and Ted attempt to renew their commitment, first with the birth of one child and then another. But as the marriage frays anew and Ted's literary stature overshadows her own, Sylvia's creative impulses surge. She funnels her fury and passion into her work, and her writing begins to flow forth in unstoppable bursts. "I really reel like God is speaking through me," she exults. Her destiny -- and Ted's, inextricably intertwined with hers -- is at hand... -- © Focus Features [More]
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner, Michael Gambon
Director: Christine Jeffs
Director: Christine Jeffs
Screenwriter: John Brownlow
Producer: Alison Owen
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for Sylvia
Good as Paltrow is, Sylvia reduces an intensely brilliant, haunted writer into a weepy, morose slacker whose overriding concern is where her husband is at all hours.
If movies were regulated like medications, the label for "Sylvia" would say: "Warning: This film is so depressing it will suck every ounce of holiday cheer from your soul."
Well acted and seriously mounted, but Sylvia the movie is, nevertheless, very boring.
Paltrow moves us as Plath, bringing poignant humanity to the character.
Excruciatingly dull. I shouted, “Hurry up and ice yourself already!” more than a few times.
Since the filmmakers had no access to the private self as expressed in Plath's body of work, Sylvia is limited to her public life, which was her death. The result feels like art imitating life, once removed.
Cut through the enlightened pretense and it’s Access Hollywood for people who eat pizza with a fork.
The overwhelmingly dark tone and bleak subject matter make this one of the most difficult-to-watch films in recent memory.
While [the movie] catalogs the stormy ups-and-downs of their marriage, [it does] little to illuminate Plath's writing or her fragile mental state.
In turning the poet's life into a package, the filmmakers have done a disservice both to her memory and to their audience.
She sure was sad. Boy, look how sad she was. She must be bipolar or manic depressive or something. Sad, sad, sad. Oh, and then she killed herself. Sad, sad, sad.
Gwyneth Paltrow, who has never made a secret of her obsession with Plath, turns in a worshipfully calculated and awards-worthy performance as her idol.
To what degree this portrayal is accurate is beside the question — as drama it's inert, and as biography it's unilluminating.
This is one of the better made and more believable films about poets, one that should be cherished for its rich depiction of its subjects.
This could be very dreary stuff if it weren't for Gwyneth Paltrow, who is pitch perfect as Plath.
A prestige picture that doesn't have a lot going for it beyond its serious intentions.
Latest News for Sylvia
October 14, 2005:
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