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Sylvia

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Sylvia (2003)

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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.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for sexuality/nudity and language

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Dramas

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

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Reviews for Sylvia

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61 - 80 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

The story of a tortured genius that gives us plenty of the torture but very little of the genius...an unremitting two-hour dirge.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
10/27/03
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig attach a handsome chemistry to their burgeoning despair.

Full Review Source: Palo Alto Weekly | comment Comment
10/26/03
Jeanne Aufmuth
Jeanne Aufmuth
Palo Alto Weekly
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
10/26/03
Boston Phoenix
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Plath was one of the most-admired female poets of the 20th century, and one of the few to receive a posthumous Pulitzer Prize, but you won't find out why here.

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/26/03
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

...by the time the movie ends, we don't really feel as though we know what made her tick.

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
10/25/03
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

Adds precisely nothing of breaking-news value to the Plath-Hughes annals.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
10/24/03
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post

For all the actors' ability, Sylvia never develops a pulse.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
10/24/03
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

Likely to be equally displeasing to Plath enthusiasts as it will be to neophytes, Sylvia suffers from a strange timidity: It only gets close to its subject by rendering her as a kind of melodramatic archetype.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
10/24/03
Geoff Pevere
Geoff Pevere
Toronto Star

[Lacks] psychological depth and emotional resonance.

Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | comment Comment
10/24/03
Glenn Lovell
Glenn Lovell
San Jose Mercury News

A coy, cautious film about a frank, fearless writer.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
10/24/03
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle

If melancholy moodscapes and witty abrasion could make a film portrait deep, Sylvia might deliver.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
10/24/03
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

Sylvia delves into the tawdry details, which give the movie all the power of ... a daytime soap.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Daily News | comment Comment
10/24/03
Gary Thompson
Gary Thompson
Philadelphia Daily News

Fails as both biographical chronicle and filmed narrative.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
10/24/03
Shawn Levy
Shawn Levy
Oregonian

A brave film.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
10/24/03
Liz Braun
Liz Braun
Jam! Movies

The film does what poets so seldom do themselves -- pursue the middle road and leave the path of excess to the less level-headed.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
10/24/03
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail

[Sylvia] is reminiscent of a tastefully illustrated picture book. It re-creates, often exquisitely and movingly, but without shedding any new light on the life and death of the most celebrated female American poet of the 20th century.

Full Review Source: Contra Costa Times | comment Comment
10/24/03
Mary F. Pols
Mary F. Pols
Contra Costa Times

For those who have read the poets and are curious about their lives, Sylvia provides illustrations for the biographies we carry in our minds.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment 1 Comment
10/24/03
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The results are mixed, but noble.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
10/24/03
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe

Christine Jeffs' timid direction and screenwriter John Brownlow's flimsy script set up each scene so that it only telegraphs the next; no single scene ever comes to life on its own terms.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
10/24/03
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
San Francisco Examiner

Gwyneth delivers a surface performance - she goes through the motions with the right expressions, exuding the proper emotions, but you don't get any depth to her feelings.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
10/24/03
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com
 
 
61 - 80 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Latest News for Sylvia

October 14, 2005: It's Official: Daniel Craig is 007
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