There are vestiges of the novel's themes of love, honor, risk, emotional and intellectual precision, but what remains is a just a nice date movie.
Comment
08/15/02
Possession (2002)
64
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:154
Fresh:99
Rotten:55
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: Based on Byatt's novel of the same name, Possession is a lovely, literate romance.
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $10,058,448
Synopsis: Set in both contemporary and Victorian England, POSSESSION, directed by Neil LaBute, is based on the novel by A.S. Byatt. The tale begins with Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart), a laid-back American... [More]
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle
Director: Neil LaBute, Barry Levinson
Reviews for Possession
141 - 160 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
A gorgeous, somnolent show that is splendidly mummified and thoroughly unsurprising.
08/15/02
Certainly worth seeing -- it's the class act to close the summer -- but the film misses some crucial charge, an innate energy that was in the book that didn't translate to the movie.
08/15/02
A lovely film...elegant, witty and beneath a prim exterior unabashedly romantic...hugely enjoyable in its own right though not really faithful to its source's complexity.
08/15/02
...like hearing a disinterested high schooler read a Shakespearean sonnet as part of a class assignment: The words are there, but the passion is missing.
08/15/02
A stuffy film disguised as a romance/ thriller/ Nancy Drew-Hardy Boys team-up.
08/14/02
Maud and Roland's search for an unknowable past makes for a haunting literary detective story, but LaBute pulls off a neater trick in Possession: He makes language sexy.
08/14/02
The movie is intelligent yet lifeless; it's all wisps and abstractions.
08/14/02
Engaging premise, delightful love stories and solid acting across the board.
08/14/02
Watching Possession is a bit like watching two people do research, except that you never learn anything yourself.
08/14/02
A miserable bit of landscape pornography bound to a somehow more miserable pair of sweaty romances.
08/14/02
The most romantic film of the summer, it's an opulent courtship saga that spans the centuries.
08/14/02
We get the romantic doom of [LaBute's] usual commentary, but this time with new filmic scope and multidimensionality.
08/13/02
A passably engaging time-jumping romantic melodrama that at least grapples seriously with one of the novel's most potent themes.
08/13/02
Top CriticIntensely romantic, thought-provoking and even an engaging mystery.
08/13/02
Suffers from insufficient nastiness. Everyone, save the designated villains and professionally obnoxious Eckhart, is altogether too dear.
08/13/02
The tang of jealousy and obsession overshadows small, shallow plot contrivances.
08/12/02
Anybody who's ever been turned on by someone's use of an unfamiliar word will understand.
08/12/02
A lovely and beautifully photographed romance.
08/12/02
Top CriticA sweet little mystery covered in romance.
08/10/02
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