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Sylvia

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Sylvia (2003)

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Reviews Counted:124

Fresh:45

Rotten:79

Average Rating:5.3/10

Consensus: This biopic about Sylvia Plath doesn't rise above the level of highbrow melodrama.

Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $1,235,406

Synopsis: Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Sylvia as legendary American author and poet Sylvia Plath, opposite Daniel Craig as British Poet Laureate Edward (Ted) Hughes. Sylvia explores the... Academy Award winner Gwyneth Paltrow stars in Sylvia as legendary American author and poet Sylvia Plath, opposite Daniel Craig as British Poet Laureate Edward (Ted) Hughes. Sylvia explores the source of creative genius, and love in all its passions. Ted and Sylvia were a sensual, volatile, and brilliant married couple who emerged as two of the most influential writers of the 20th century. The film begins in 1956. Sylvia is in England on a Fulbright Scholarship when she meets Ted. The attraction is immediate and mutual. It is a meeting not only of the minds, but of an intense physicality as well. Within four months, they are married. When her studies are completed, Sylvia is offered a teaching post back in America. She accepts, and the couple relocates. A working wife, Sylvia must also tend to her unique voice or risk losing it. The newly published Ted attracts the attention of the literary world, along with the attentions of admiring women. Retuning to England in the late 1959, Sylvia and Ted attempt to renew their commitment, first with the birth of one child and then another. But as the marriage frays anew and Ted's literary stature overshadows her own, Sylvia's creative impulses surge. She funnels her fury and passion into her work, and her writing begins to flow forth in unstoppable bursts. "I really reel like God is speaking through me," she exults. Her destiny -- and Ted's, inextricably intertwined with hers -- is at hand... -- © Focus Features [More]

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner, Michael Gambon

Director: Christine Jeffs

Director: Christine Jeffs
Screenwriter: John Brownlow
Producer: Alison Owen
Composer: Gabriel Yared
Studio: Focus Features

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Reviews for Sylvia

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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N/R

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Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/18/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
04/29/09
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

Plath might have been the stupid cow that Paltrow plays, the stubbornly ambitious, jealous demonbit genius discontent, immune to the ordinary joys of life.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment 1 Comment
11/25/07
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Newsweek | comment Comment
11/01/07
David Ansen
David Ansen
Newsweek

Gwyneth Paltrow is anything but engaging in this rarely interesting look at the life of author Sylvia Plath.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
08/08/06
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
01/09/06
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
05/13/05
Apollo Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/31/04
Rachel Gordon
Rachel Gordon
Filmcritic.com

Gwyneth Paltrow is a shining star and plays a faultless dramatic role.

Full Review Source: FilmFocus | comment Comment
07/20/04
Joe Utichi
Joe Utichi
FilmFocus

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
05/14/04
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Paltrow provides the depth that the script lacks, making a lot from very little.

Full Review Source: Film-Forward.com | comment Comment
04/20/04
Kent Turner
Kent Turner
Film-Forward.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
04/09/04
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
02/14/04
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

When it’s all said and done, Plath had the courage of her convictions, and so does this honest movie.

Full Review Source: Boulder Weekly | comment Comment
02/09/04
Thomas Delapa
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (Australia) | comment Comment
02/02/04
Sunday Times (Australia)
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It lacks an incisive viewpoint and keeps us emotionally at arm's length.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
01/31/04
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

Not the last word on the subject by any means, but it is a solid entry into the canon that sensibly resists beatification or crucifixion of the Ariel poet.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
01/15/04
Catharine Tunnacliffe
Catharine Tunnacliffe
eye WEEKLY

Good as Paltrow is, Sylvia reduces an intensely brilliant, haunted writer into a weepy, morose slacker whose overriding concern is where her husband is at all hours.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
01/14/04
Stacie Hougland
Stacie Hougland
Hollywood.com
 
 
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