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Sylvia (2003)

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Sylvia. Feature film. (2003, 110 mins) IMDB

...Some ideas just don't work as a film....

S

ylvia is a 2003 feature film starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Sylvia Plath and Daniel Craig as her husband Ted Hughes.

There was nothing wrong with the acting or the actors. Both stars are accomplished and believable, but the film attempts to show the real-life story of poet Sylvia Plath and fails.

She falls in love, gets married, and struggles with her writing. No respect. Little income. Her husband is an accomplished poet and philanderer. This is filmable, but so what. It's not very interesting.

What is interesting is her struggle with depression--a depression that leads her to suicide at 31--but how to show that with any insight? It's not in this film as it raises more questions than insights.

Narrate her journals? You'd be better off reading her published journals.

Posted 2007/06/23 at 17h16ET in Movie Commentary.

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