At face value, "Possession" is the kind of film most undergraduates imagine only their English professors could love. It's difficult to grasp that any sane person who has a relevant job working the nine-to-five grind could see the value in a storyline that centers on whether a dead, schmaltzy, English poet wrote love letters to an upper class lesbian over a hundred years ago. Amazingly, Director Neil LaBute succeeds; the audience not only cares by the end of the movie, but also sees past the "scandal" to focus on the film's more crucial themes of romance and wordplay.
Based on A.S. Byatt's 1990 best-selling novel, "Possession" is actually set in both modern-day and Victorian England. Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) are literary scholars bent on uncovering the secret, romantic love life of poet Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam). While this might sound like voyeuristic titillation, there are English professors out there who actually care. In the academic community, Ash has a reputation as a prude. So evidence that he had a love affair would fundamentally disrupt all current interpretations of his poetry.
In fact, some people care so much that they are willing to dig up the fetid remains of deceased poets to discover the secrets that were buried with them. It sure is a lot of fun watching two old, stiff-collared British academics duke it out with bare fists all in the name of English literature.
Michell, a lowly American scholar, while working under the snooty tutelage of these academics, discovers a secret love letter written by Ash buried within the leaves of century-old volumes stacked in the London Library. This is where "Possession" finds its success.
The storyline unfolds like a scavenger hunt. As the young scholars trek the English countryside for clues regarding Ash's affair with Christabelle Lamotte (Jennifer Ehle), LaBute draws the audience in with a well-developed sense of discovery.
He relies on the usual archetypes that have always piqued viewer interest: an old attic, a cave hidden behind a waterfall, and a graveyard. Part of what enhances their value is the way these beautifully shot images render themselves in the storyline. The riddles that lead to the discovery of these locations are verbally expressed through the words in Ash and Lamotte's love letters and literary poetry.
It also helps to have a strong leading duo like Paltrow and Eckhart; their charismatic depictions of two very eager nerds allow the audience to get sucked into the mystery centering on two important love stories: the affair in the past between Ash and Lamotte and the fluctuating relationship between Bailey and Michell.
LaBute's infamous reputation is the product of his stark portrayals of human relationships. Previous films such as "Your Friends and Neighbors," and "In the Company of Men," sent moviegoers the following message: people only love to use each other. The end result is that their na??ve partners are dumped for more satisfying pursuits.
Most critics are putting LaBute to the test in this movie. Can a director who has depicted romance in the most crass, cynical ways in past films actually produce not one, but two uplifting, positive relationships that the audience can buy? The answer is.kind of.
In "Possession," Ash is the elegantly verbose, but hopelessly British poet who falls for Lamotte, despite the fact that he has the old ball and chain to worry about. In turn, Lamotte has a secret, homosexual relationship with Blanche Glover (Lena Headey), which is naturally tested by the urbane and hesitant advances of Ash. It's the typical story of forbidden love, but it's told well. LaBute compresses it in short, powerful episodes, revealed only in flashbacks when Bailey and Michell pour over the love letters.
As representatives of the modern era, Bailey and Michell aren't supposed to be the ideal couple. But the problem is that "Possession" wants them to appear as the odd couple. In the novel, Michell was a poor Englishman, but in LaBute's movie, he's an upbeat Yankee, who readily strips down to his boxers for a dip in the lake. It's not that Eckhart's acting leaves something to be desired, but the contrast pits the movie too much as a battle between brash, American idealism and staid British personalities.
Much of the weight of the film rests on the credibility of the relationship between Bailey and LaBute. Paltrow, who plays a feminist scholar, does the best she can at putting up a strong defense against Eckhart's awkwardly brash advances. It doesn't work and it ruins LaBute's intent to show that a meaningful relationship is possible through the communication of poetry.
