Sylvia

Rating:
Summary: Worth seeing for Gwyneth's performance
Review: SYLVIA hasn't done well at box offices around the world. I think the reason is that the movie focusses far too much on Sylvia's private life than her poetry. However, that is the angle the scriptwriters decided to take. Keeping that in mind, I give the film credit because Gwyneth Paltrow delivers a stunning performance as the depression-riddled Sylvia Path. I found the movie totally engaging for that reason alone.

The film does seem to move at a fast pace, but I think this helps grab the viewer's attention.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised at Sylvia, after tossing the DVD aside for month's in favour of other titles.

Rating:
Summary: A View from Behind the Poets' Eyes
Review: SYLVIA is a film that appears to have disparate factions: those who are disappointed that the story is not about poetry and those who find the biography of a woman possessed of a progressively disintegrating mind sufficient. Sylvia Plath is a poet who come into her own after her famous suicide - an act that was a reflection of her troubled life and failed previous childhood suicide attempt. Now her novel "The Bell Jar" and her most famous collection of poems "Ariel" have earned her a seat in the high echelon of American poets. Would she have achieved that status were it not for her life as wife of the enigmatic poet Ted Hughes, with all the highs and lows that marriage afforded is a question that will never be answered. But at least in SYLVIA we have a beautifully and lovingly rendered version of what happens in the poet's mind as directed by Christine Jeffs.

The entire cast is well selected and the performances are subtle, quality ones. Gweneth Paltrow captures the fragility and paranoia/depression mind state of Plath as well as any actress could. Her mother in the film is played to perfection by Blythe Danner, Paltrow's real life mother. Ted Hughes is portrayed by Daniel Craig who manages to maintain our empathy despite the acts that on screen are seen as contributory to Plath's demise. Those acts just happen to likewise have contributed to the content and flavor and message of her poems.

The cinematography is wondrous, illuminating not only the exteriors of London and Devon, England, but also exploring the interiors of the dark places Sylvia and Ted had lived. These dark places are wonderful metaphors for the spaces within the mind that comes unwound. Yes, there may be other versions of Plath's life, especially now that Ted Hughes "Birthday Letters" were published recently just before Hughes dies. But for the present SYLVIA is a tribute, fair and dark and gentle, of a fine American poet. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: the moment of inspiration
Review: SYLVIA, starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the poet Sylvia Plath, is another example of how hard it is to make a biographical film about a creative person. The movie focuses on the marriage of Plath and Ted Hughes (played diffidently by Daniel Craig), who was at least at the time the more famous poet.
It's really impossible to capture on film what made Plath and Hughes talented writers. They gaze into the distance, have an inspiration, write it down. At least in the movie POLLOCK we got to see the result of all the brow furrowing. There's a lot more attention paid to Plath's mental illness, but only on a superficial level. Plath is unhappy almost constantly, but because of the lack of context, it seems like all her problems are caused because Hughes isn't nice to her.I suspect it was a good deal more complicated than that. In turn, Hughes is (apparently) driven to infidelity by Plath's behavior.
I should say Paltrow is excellent here, fierce and tough. It's a reminder of what she can do given a good role. But the movie is determined to make Plath a martyr, but to what? No extras on the DVD, either.
Also with Michael Gambon, Jared Harris as A. Alvarez, and Blythe Danner as Plath's mother.

Rating:
Summary: Not what you think...
Review: The title of this film should have been 'Sylvia and Ted.' The film documented Slyvia's life in Cambridge and her meeting and marriage to poet, Ted Hughes. It doesn't document much of her life, pre-Ted. For example, we never learn about her father ( a huge subject in much of Plath's poetry); his death contributed greatly to Sylvia's depression (shame on all of you who think it was all Ted)--I don't think she ever really got over his death, she was admitted and received electroshock during her college years at Smith college. The film never really explains itself, we just glimpse Sylvia breaking down. If I watched this movie without all ready knowing a little of Slyvia's biography, I would have guessed that this woman was going psycotic from her husband's many infidelities. We never learn of, Sylvia the poet, the genius...the movie protrayed her more as a frail, psychotic nut. And the 'Bell Jar'....They never even mention the Bell Jar, maybe one or two references to it, where Sylvia mentions she's working on a book. If you want to know more about Slyvia, I recommend sticking to her journals.

Rating:
Summary: The life and death of Slyvia Plath, but without the poetry
Review: There was a point early on when I was struck by the thought of the degree to which the 2003 film "Sylvia" is burdened with our knowledge that in the end Sylvia Plath is going to stick her head in an oven in one of the most famous suicides of the 20th century. The next thing I know Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig) is telling Sylvia (Gwyneth Paltrow) that to write poetry she just needs to pick a subject "and stick her head in it." Ouch.

Of course the great irony is that Ted Hughes' infidelity inspired Plath's best work and her suicide made her immortal. However, I would be inclined to think the admirers of Plath's poetry are going to be disappointed for two major reasons. First, the screenplay by John Brownlow establishes from the beginning of the film the idea that Plath was a suicide waiting to happen. A suicide attempt that almost succeeded before she went to college in England becomes the key to everything that happens follows and for those who have blame Hughes for Plath's death there is considerably less support for that idea than they might expect to see. The precipitous event, if you would put your finger on one thing in the film, ends up being the pregnancy of the woman with whom he was having an affair. The argument been that Plath killed herself because her husband had left her for another woman (a fellow poet named Assia Wevill, who was also married), but there is a certain ambiguity to the scene where Hughes speaks more of not being able to return. You can see that in the film if you want to find it, but objectively the film puts most of the responsibility on Plath. Nor does it point out that Wevill would eventually kill herself and the daughter she had by Hughes, using gas, just as Plath did, which certainly strike you as an additional condemnation as well.

Second, and this point applies more to those of us who are not really familiar with the poetry of either Plath or Hughes, the film is pretty much devoid of their work. Frieda Hughes, Plath's daughter and literary executor, refused to cooperate with the producers of this film, specifically refusing to allow them access to her mother's poetry, and also publicly denounced the film in a published poem of her own: "They think/ I should give them my mother's words/ To fill the mouth of their monster/ Their Sylvia suicide doll." Granted, it is difficult to make a film that captures the literary experience of writing, but it is certainly easier if you are dealing with poetry or drama (i.e., "Shakespeare in Love") than a novel. I have to believe that this would have been a powerful film that celebrated Plath's creativity at the same time it depicts her hurtling towards death.

Plath's poems were passionate about death and I can well imagine those who have committed some of her poems to memory inserting them at the right points in the film. Despite solid performances by Paltrow and Craig the end result is that "Slyvia" is an incomplete performance, smacking of voyeurism rather than an attempt at understanding. This would be akin to watching "Amadeus" without the music of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" without the paintings.

Rating:
Summary: The life and death of Slyvia Plath, but without the poetry
Review: There was a point early on when I was struck by the thought of the degree to which the 2003 film "Sylvia" is burdened with our knowledge that in the end Sylvia Plath is going to stick her head in an oven in one of the most famous suicides of the 20th century. The next thing I know Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig) is telling Sylvia (Gwyneth Paltrow) that to write poetry she just needs to pick a subject "and stick her head in it." Ouch.

Of course the great irony is that Ted Hughes' infidelity inspired Plath's best work and her suicide made her immortal. However, I would be inclined to think the admirers of Plath's poetry are going to be disappointed for two major reasons. First, the screenplay by John Brownlow establishes from the beginning of the film the idea that Plath was a suicide waiting to happen. A suicide attempt that almost succeeded before she went to college in England becomes the key to everything that happens follows and for those who have blame Hughes for Plath's death there is considerably less support for that idea than they might expect to see. The precipitous event, if you would put your finger on one thing in the film, ends up being the pregnancy of the woman with whom he was having an affair. The argument been that Plath killed herself because her husband had left her for another woman (a fellow poet named Assia Wevill, who was also married), but there is a certain ambiguity to the scene where Hughes speaks more of not being able to return. You can see that in the film if you want to find it, but objectively the film puts most of the responsibility on Plath. Nor does it point out that Wevill would eventually kill herself and the daughter she had by Hughes, using gas, just as Plath did, which certainly strike you as an additional condemnation as well.

Second, and this point applies more to those of us who are not really familiar with the poetry of either Plath or Hughes, the film is pretty much devoid of their work. Frieda Hughes, Plath's daughter and literary executor, refused to cooperate with the producers of this film, specifically refusing to allow them access to her mother's poetry, and also publicly denounced the film in a published poem of her own: "They think/ I should give them my mother's words/ To fill the mouth of their monster/ Their Sylvia suicide doll." Granted, it is difficult to make a film that captures the literary experience of writing, but it is certainly easier if you are dealing with poetry or drama (i.e., "Shakespeare in Love") than a novel. I have to believe that this would have been a powerful film that celebrated Plath's creativity at the same time it depicts her hurtling towards death.

Plath's poems were passionate about death and I can well imagine those who have committed some of her poems to memory inserting them at the right points in the film. Despite solid performances by Paltrow and Craig the end result is that "Slyvia" is an incomplete performance, smacking of voyeurism rather than an attempt at understanding. This would be akin to watching "Amadeus" without the music of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" without the paintings.

Rating:
Summary: Unreliable Piece of Junk
Review: This film is not very good and doesnt give a decent description to the banal writer, Plath, played with unmotivated response by Paltrow. Somehow the director, who is a woman, never chooses to give us passion or even any amount of interest in the topic at hand, the matter of fact presentation is dull and the climax is expected. So she killed herself and, well, the director rolls the credits and nothing is ever satisfied inside the viewer's mind......



Rating:
Summary: BRAVO Gwyneth!
Review: This film is NOT what I expected! I expected a fantastic film with fantastic performances/stars. Well, the movie sucked. But the actors were wonderful! Especially Gwyneth. The scenes with her real-life mom, Ms. Danner, were intriguing.

If you are a Gwyneth Paltrow fan, you'll enjoy this film. Otherwise, skip it.

Rating:
Summary: Where is the poet?
Review: This movie, though delightfully shot, seems to miss out on one major point -- Sylvia Plath was a pretty good poet. She was as full as emotion as Ted Hughes was lacking in the same. Although -- Hughes had a much better command of form. But of course -- the movie falls flat in showing even these minor details about the two poets. In the opening scene, we hear Plath (in voice-over) reading a part of "Lady Lazarus" -- and get to hear her quote Chaucer and Shakespeare. But where are the scenes where we get to understand her love of words, her creative process? Intead the movie focuses too much on the story of Hughes and Plath ... which is really the sideshow to their talents. Plath was really a highly complex, despairing poet -- who happened to be married to Hughes. But the movie makes it a story about a husband and wife -- who happened to write a little poetry on the side. As far as the performances are considered -- Paltrow is very good -- as are the other actors. There isn't a badly acted part in the movie. It just happens that the script was a bit slight on the poetic aspect. Plath is certainly no Auden, Lowell or Cummings ... but the movie should have given more credit to her poetic skills than the "summarized" ending explaining how many people have read her works in the 20th Century. It's a bit of a cop out.

Rating:
Summary: Good quote in another review ...
Review: This quote form another reviewer is very funny ... and yes ... very accurate:
"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."