Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 16, 2005 | | Summary | Double your pleasure, double your fun | Content
 | This film adaptation of the novel by A.S. Byatt is superb. Its strength lies in the use of the double story line, the double romance, that both develop and intertwine throughout the film.
First we have two modern academics, Maud Bailey, played by Gwynyth Paltrow, and Roland Michell played by Aaron Eckhart. This couple is piecing together the secret romance of two famous Victorian writers, Randolph Henry Ash (played by Jeremy Northam) and Christabel LaMotte (played by Jennifer Ehle). In Byatt's wonderful way of weaving a story within a story, these two modern academic types fall in love as the Victorian secret romance they are discovering acts as a catalyst to their own love affair.
It is wonderfully ironic that the Victorian lovers rush into a passionate and heated romance with terrible consequences when LaMotte's lesbian lover commits suicide while the modern lovers are awkward, cool, frightened of love. Yet it is the flame of the 100 year old romance between LaMotte and Ash that assists in the breaking up of Bailey and Michell's protective armor and allows them to gradually experience vulnerability, and appreciation, and passion, and eventually friendship with each other. This is Byatt's wonderful theme in much of her work, which this film captures, which is that the "story" has the ability to reorganize our cognitive and emotional interpretation of our life. There are terrible consequences and painful events that emerge from LaMott and Ash's romance, and yet our modern lovers gradually recognize that there are also severe consequences in maintaining a cool protective veneer over our emotional lives and they do fall in love and act on that love and they are both wide-eyed open to the possibilities.
In the Victorian romance, LaMott has a child by Ash, whom Ash eventually discovers. But the love of Maud Bailey and Roland Michell are also the children of this romance. The wisdom of Byatt would say that whereas the story of LaMott and Ash kindled the love of Bailey and Michell, the value of any story is now whether this tale of modern reticence to love will stimulate others to take the plunge. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 14, 2005 | | Summary | Pretty fun, romantic movie | Content
| This is a great date movie for bibliophiles. My girlfriend and I were both English majors in college, then English teachers, and we really enjoyed the film in the theatre. We later bought the DVD.
The two stories keep you interested. The "modern" plotline is fairly predictable, but the mystery that Paltrow and that guy are trying to solve is relatively intricate, but not so much so that you get caught up in the movie and forget about the person you're watching with.
Another plus, at least to my girlfriend, is that Jennifer Ehle, Eliza Bennet from the BBC's "Pride and Prejudice" is in it, so the pleasant memories of her girlhood give this film a boost. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 29, 2005 | | Summary | Poo-session | Content
| What an insipid, cheesy, slow pile of crappola this movie was. Gwynyth, please please please lose the fake accent, its excruciating. I didnt care about anyone in this whole movie, not the two poets, not the researchers, no one. I kept giggling everytime they said "professor BlackAdder" i kept expecting Rowan Atkinson to jump out in tights and his little black hat.Save your time do not watch this movie, its so predictable a 5 year old could figure it out within 15 minutes. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 28, 2004 | | Summary | "No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed" | Content
| One of the protagonists of this movie says that "No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed". In a way, that reflects the dilemma of the main four characters in their quest for love and passion. Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) and Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), experts in English literature, discover a link between Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam) and Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle), through a letter one of them stole. As they investigate how important the link between those well-known Victorian poets was, a relationship begins to grow between them, despite the fact that neither of them was eager to start a relationship. But what are the differences between these couples?. It is easy to see that Ash and Christabel plunge into a love affair and are somehow consumed by it and its consequences. On the other hand, Ronald and Maud are so aware of the possible emotional consequences of a failed relationship that they don't want to run the risk of heartache, and thus try to avoid the "fire" that true passion involves.
As you probably already noticed, this film doesn't have one love story: it has two. One takes place in the Victorian period, and the other in our times, but both are closely linked. The question is: can a love affair from the past bring a modern couple together?. And if so, how, and why?. The plot is pretty simple, but well developed. The director (Neil LaBute) somehow managed to reflect the progress of both love stories at the same time, so the spectator cannot help but compare the way in which both relationships developed, and the conventions that were important in each time. I specially liked the role that the letters that Ash and Christabel sent each other (and that Roland and Maud discovered) played in the film. They were truly engaging, and the perfect complement for the uniformly good acting and the perfect English scenery.
On the whole, I think this is a good movie, but not a great one. It lacks that "something" that makes a viewer remember a movie well after watching it. Despite that, not all movies can be unforgettable classics. Sometimes, if they are at least a good way to pass time and relax, that is enough. In my opinion, that is the case here. If you like a good romance story with some elements of literature and poetry, try this movie: you'll have a good time :)
Belen Alcat
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| Rating | | | Date | November 01, 2004 | | Summary | Hopelessly Romantic | Content
| I would also like to express an opinion contrary to the majority I saw listed here. I think this is a beautifully filmed movie, with the English countryside almost existing as a supporting character. I think both the modern and the Victorian romances were played exquisitely by the characters. Gwyneth's potrayal of Maude was exactly as it should have been and she was incredibly believeable in being aloof and guarded and scared to love. I think the true jewel of the story is the Victorian romance. Both actors did a fantastic job potraying the harshness of a love affair in Victorian times. All in all a must see movie! |
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