Sylvia

Rating:
Summary: Strictly for Gwyneth Paltrow Fans
Review: I LOVED the movie. Really surprised that Gwyneth didn't get an Oscar nomination for her performance. I personally think it was her best performance to date. She was sexy and very beautiful. The movie reminded me a lot of "The Hours" which I loved as well.
As for the Plath fans, I can understand their disappointment. I thought Blyth Danner was very good too. A definite two thumbs up for me...

Rating:
Summary: A Somewhat Melodramatic Story about a Great Poetess
Review: I saw "Sylvia" with friends today, and was rather disappointed. Since Nicole Kidman's brilliant portrayal of Virginia Woolf in "The Hours," I was looking forward to this movie, first of all because of Gwyneth Paltrow (an actress whom I really admire), and because of Sylvia Plath, who is one of my favorite authors.

Well, Gwyneth was brilliant, as always, which I cannot say about the other actors playing supporting roles. The sex scenes were kind of crude and unromantic, and every time Sylvia cried she had a rather large teardrop on the tip of her nose, which I found at first "touchy," and then annoying (I mean, it happens like in 4-5 scenes!)

The film is very melodramatic and does not live up to your expectations. Lines of poetry are thrown randomly at you, not just Plath's, but Yeats', Shakespeare's, Hughes', etc. It doesn't even compare to the Virginia Woolf story in "The Hours," where even her suicide was shown with great style (sounds ironic, I know). In "Sylvia," there is little connection between the scenes, and absolutely no chemistry between the two leading actors. And what about that horrific music! I guess they couldn't afford Philip Glass or Michael Nyman to write them a good film score. Oh well.

Four stars for being one of the "good" films this season; you certainly won't lose your money if you decide to see it, but it won't leave a trace in your memory.

I kind of noticed that movies about repressed and misunderstood, suicidal female authors are getting popular nowadays, I mean first there was Jane Campion's "An Angel at My Table" with her story about Janet Frame, then "The Hours," and now "Sylvia." I guess someone's going to make a film about Emily Dickinson soon. That would be so cool though- Victorian America and everything.

Well, see "Sylvia" and judge for yourself. One other thing: Michael Gambon also makes an appearance, which definitely adds more flavor to this otherwise sentimental and melodramatic story.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadful-Read the Book Instead
Review: I thought this film was dreadful. Thank goodness Plath's daughter had the sense and premonition to refuse to let the producers use the poet's work in this trite film. What was the point? To see Plath put her head in the oven? To re-play tiresome cliches (the sexual symbolism in this film is sophomoric)over and over? Paltrow is an actress of little depth who clearly has no insight into Plath's character or intelligence and can only play her like a wounded ingenue-how disappointing. Hearing her "read" two lines of Sylvia Plath's poetry made me want to laugh out loud. Really, avoid this and read any of the biographies available or, better yet, Sylvia's letters, poetry or diaries. I'm amazed to see the good reviews for this film on Amazon-it's one of the worst I've seen recently and really does a dis-service to Sylvia Plath's talent and complex, if troubled, personality.

Rating:
Summary: A waste...whether you've read Plath, or not.
Review: I was just about equally looking forward to and dreading the release of "Sylvia". Finally catching up with it on DVD, I give it high technical kudos(photographed extremely well, sound is superb). As far as biography goes, however...
I should say that I have been interested in Sylvia Plath since college. While not the stereotypical angst-ridden college girl, my Plath-loving roommate was...But her interest finally inspired me to read the famous poems that this most famous suicide wrote. Surprise! They were *great*. Plath's poems deserved all the notoriety they'd gotten. And yes, when a body of work that's so famously dark(mostly)is the product of a woman who very famously killed herself, you DO want to learn more about the personal life of the poet. And once you begin to delve into one or two Plath biographies-oh, my. What a fascinating, infuriating, brilliant, troubled woman she was. Truly, this was a life story that begs for a decent film treatment. Sadly, after an opening credit sequence that perfectly captures the strange, haunting effect of Plath's poetry, the "story" of the film-that is, the screenplay-is pretty darn lame: a by-the-numbers romance of a troubled girl and her troubling husband. And crimes of crimes-it's done *boringly*. So much is glossed over-or wildly over-emphasized. Real-life, documented events that were exciting are for some strange reason restaged to make them less so. And there's zero chemistry between the "passionate" couple. Daniel Craig is totally miscast as the man so handsomely LARGE that Plath's friend Anne Sexton called him "Ted Huge": he looks puny and unattractive. Paltrow is trying much, much too hard to "be" Sylvia Plath; she should have just relaxed a bit(no matter how uptight the real woman was), been less "careful" with her every gesture. Better yet-they should have cast someone who looked less "like" Sylvia and embodied her better-Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Cate Blanchett, any number of great actresses could have helped. But the fatal flaw is the lousy screenplay. In sum: Plath afficionados will be disappointed; others will be totally bored.

Rating:
Summary: Big Let Down
Review: I was really looking forward to the release of Sylvia, after having read the Bell Jar and Rough Magic, the biography of her life. After I watched the dvd I was very disappointed. They never really focused on her childhood, which I felt was a big part of what led to her mental illness and eventually her suicide. I was left feeling that something was missing. I know Sylvia Plath's family didn't give permission for the film to use any of her poetry, which kept people from knowing what a gifted and talented poet and writer she was. A really sad portray of her life.

Rating:
Summary: Good Acting But Sylvia's Life Can Be Found Only in Her Poems
Review: If you want to know Sylvia, read her poems. I tell you, even if you see the film 'Sylvia,' you never meet the poetess herself. You will see Ms. Paltrow, who did a really good job, and you will see beautifully shot images, and ... that's all.

Though the film is titled 'Sylvia,' it is mainly about the relations between her and Ted Hughes. Probably you are a kind of movie fan who want to see this 'high-brow' drama, so you don't need any further explanations about them. I only add that it starts with their Cambridge days, and ends with the fatal day and the gas oven.

Now, the problem is this; 'Sylvia' sidesteps many questions about her complicated life, concentrating too much on the turbulent relations with Ted Hughes. However, take away the fact that the film is based on the life of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, and what will remain after that? And where is her 'daddy'?

'Sylvia' or its director Christine Jeffs is not kind to Ted Hughes. I admit that they can view things this way if they like, but the film seems to attribute most of her incredible anguish to Ted Hughes's womanizing habits (which the film claims), and still dilutes his behaviors. Sylvia's life thus is portrayed as a painful one, as the housewife playing the second violin or neglected wife who must stay at home, but clearly, these pains, immediate and real as they are, do not explain the personality of Plath. And that personality is only to be found in her poems.

Good acting from Gwyneth Paltrow as Plath, Daniel Craig as Hughes, Jared Harris, Michael Gambon, and very clever casting of the real-life mother of Paltrow Blyth Danner as Sylvia's mother, good music score (thanks to Gabriel Yared, 'Cold Mountain'), and good period costumes by Sandy Powell ('Shakespeare in Love'). But the film still remains buffled by the enigma of Plath, or her genius.

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: It is difficult for one to make a film about sylvia Plath without being terribly melodramatic & cliched. Guess what. This film is terribly melodramatic & cliched. What is funny is how in the preview it says this is the "untold story" about Hughes & Plath. Frankly, I can't think of a more boring & dead literary topic than those two because it has been beaten to death! This film is like reading a linear progression of Plath's life in a bio, only the film offers nothing new to say, other than now you're just watching it on screen instead of reading it. This film is not as bad as "The Hours" which was one of the worst movies of the last fifty years, mainly because this is not as PC & reeking of propaganda like in the way "The Hours" was. The score is not good nor bad- (in "The Hours" it is abysmal- Philip Glass should stick to the Koyaanisqatsi films).
Weep weep weep boo hoo- this film offers no insight into the characters. Why was Plath such a great poet? How was she? The film also does not explore how Hughes is a talentless Hack, & for the first half you do not know if he is cheating on her or if it's just her paranoia. He cheated on her, period. Sylvia was too messed up to handle it. Let's watch her stick her head in the oven. The good thing is that Paltrow gives a solid performance, (better than Kidman mumbling in the air to herself to show that she's crazy) but only for as much as the script allows. The script is terribly written & I think that's shown best (or worst) when Al Alvarez, her pal/critic tells her that "she and ted understand one another in ways others can only dream of," Are you crying yet? Have pity on me please. Unless you are Plath obsessed, I cannot see anyone finding this film interesting. It is also too long & I found myself checking my watch several times in the theatre. I also had a stiff neck at the end & decided I'd never paint my walls pea green. Also, if you don't want to be depressed, keep plenty of lamps and open windows around. Apparently they did not have such inventions back in 1960's England.

PS- 2/20/04
How is it that I have so many reviewers disagreeing with me? Do people really think this movie is good? It's not the worst film I've ever seen (maybe I'd argue "The Hours" for that one) but it is dull, dull, dull. It's very difficult to get into the mind of a writer because it's a totally internal process, which is why bio pics, about artists especially, generally fail. I thought this one stunk, but I'll probably end up getting the DVD because it is about Plath, who happened to be a great poet, even though this film does not explore how she got to be that way. (One minute she has writer's block & the next is publishing The Colossus- what's up with that). The flow of this flim is clunky and awkward.

Rating:
Summary: Great performances
Review: Let's face it: if you're going to see "Sylvia", most likely you realize that it's not going to be a feel good movie. You won't leave the theater all warm and fuzzy.

And you don't. However, you do leave the theater with a lot to think about for the rest of the day. First and foremost, both Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig give bold, memorable performances as Sylvia Path and Ted Hughes, the doomed poet couple of the late 1950's and early 1960's. Patrow looks so much like photos of Plath that it's eerie. However, she does more than just look like her-she conveys the woman's neurotic brilliance, her desperate need to conform to her ideals of feminity, motherhood and wifehood while at the same time trying to produce world class poetry. Craig meanwhile (who also looks like photos of Hughes) illuminates both the magenetism of Hughes' presence--which drew sylvia and many other women to him--and his trying to meet the challenge of living with Sylvia. Hughes was brilliant too--but not mentally ill and that makes all the difference.
Strong supporting performances run through the movie; most notably, Blythe Danner as Plath's mother and Michael Gambon as a kindly though increasingly impatient neighbor.
I would recommend this movie to those who gravitate towards art house movies and literature lovers. If you're a Ted Hughes basher, this movie may be too balanced for you. Likewise, if you're a Plath basher. Yest it's a small movie in many ways--the score could have been better, the story fleshed out a bit more (hence the four stars)--but it is a very good small movie.

Rating:
Summary: Lazy Hollywood stereotyping of "writers"
Review: Listen up, all you yokels out there...

According to the movies, great writers:

1. Memorize other great writers' stuff--especially Shakespeare--then spout off in drunken orgies of literary showmanship.
2. Are far too sensitive to live. Far, far too sensitive to live. Oh, gosh, are they sensitive. Must drink, must smoke, must pop pills! Anything to keep the pain, the godawful pain, of being alive down to a mere throbbing.

At least that's what I got out of "Sylvia," the movie (obviously told from Ted Hughes' POV) starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the poet and writer of "The Bell Jar," a favorite book for suicide girls everywhere.

"Sylvia" is a repulsive movie, made self-consciously artsy-fartsy. The movie's colors are faded feces-bile-vomit, foamed over in a foggy haze. The movie practically thumps its chest bellowing I AM ART. THESE ARE ARTISTS. LOOK AT THEM, CREATING ART and SUCH.

Give me a break.

Paltrow's Plath is a (hmmm, how to put this?) hysterical jerk. Hughes is a self-important smuggo who wins a poetry prize. They meet in college in England, recite Shakespeare at each other, get married, and go to America, where they both teach.

IMPORTANT PLOT POINT: PLATH ATTEMPTED SUIDIDE WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG. YOU MUST KNOW THIS. SUICIDE! AND IT WASN'T A CRY FOR HELP BECAUSE SHE CRAWLED UNDER THE HOUSE TO DIE. GOT THAT?

Plath can't write with Hughes' poetry prize hanging over her head, so she bakes like Marge Simpson did in the fear-of-flying episode. Then it's back to England, where Plath drives Hughes into another woman's arms. She burns all his stuff, then writes important works during a montage, then sticks her head in the oven.

Oh, my. The end.

Rating:
Summary: On Its Own Merits, a Great Movie
Review: Perhaps those who have preconceived notions about the relationship of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath will find fault with this movie. But to me it seems sensitively done, frankly portraying both virtues and faults, the external pressures on the marriage, and the slow but steady demise of a tormented artistic soul. Although it seems not to press any agenda, the film leaves the viewer free to draw his own conclusions.

For fans of action films this one moves far too slowly. But for those who are captivated by subtleties of character and psychology, the pace is fine, the sequence of scenes logical, and the movie riveting from beginning to end. The acting is totally convincing, and one is less aware of actors than aborbed in their characters--always the hallmark of a successful film.

The film score is perfectly suited to the subject matter: pensive even at its sunniest, and never without the darkness of Sylvia's character. My only regret is that it isn't a bit more varied in thematic content. But perhaps this was deliberate, reflecting the obsessions of the poetess herself.

I have watched this movie a number of times, and plan to watch it many more. It is rewarding each time, something I can say for very few movies. It has led me to explore the poetry of Hughes and Plath, and I expect I'm not alone. The film's ability to generate interest in the art of its characters is a hallmark of its success. Highly recommended.