Title: Possession (2002)
Director: Neil LaBute
Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Lena Headey, Jennifer Ehle, Aaron Eckhart.


No, NOT Poseidon. Possession. Has anyone actually seen it? Or am I the only one? I recently got it on DVD and funny enough it was on TV last Thursday. I, initially, bought it because Lena Headey is in it, a tiny part, but she's in it.

The movie starts when Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) finds a love letters in a book of a famous Victorian poet, Randolph Henry Ash. The book has been in the library in London for some time, but nobody has seemed to notice the letters. He reads the letters and soon realizes he is on to something. Something big, since the letters written by Ash aren't addressed to his wife, but another poet, Christabel LaMotte.

He gets the help of Dr. Maud Bailey, a cold literary researcher, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. She doesn't believe him, especially since LaMotte was a feminist, who was considered a lesbian. Her lover is played by Lena Headey (yes, she plays a lesbian again! But she does it so well.) She helps him anyway and soon they find out the truth and they could have the biggest break of the English literary history. Of course, other people want to have this break too and they are after Maud and Roland.

On a romantic level, Maud and Roland come closer together as Ash and LaMotte do and it has some nice parallels between the modern day scenes and Victorian times flashbacks.

I'm not a big fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, but she was unusually good. Her British accent was okay to me, but, like I said before in my The Jacket review, I'm not an expert on accents (yet, because in the course I'm going to I will be learning everything about accents). Aaron Eckhart was good too. I had no idea who he was before seeing this movie, but I can see he is a talented actors. I'll definitely watch more of his work. Lena Headey was great as usual and she looked great wearing those cute old-fashioned glasses! She really portrayed the saddest person in the movie and she did that very well. The scene were she walks into the water to commit suicide was heartbreaking. That shot of her spectacles on the rocks and it's all misty: WOW! I got goosebumps watching it.

The story, itself, is an unusual romance story. I liked the parallels between modern day events and the Victorian events. They gave a nice twist to the story, otherwise it would have been a somewhat standard romance story. I liked the fact that even though the love between LaMotte and Ash was the center of the story, you could still see that there was a lot of love between LaMotte and Blanche Glover (Lena). They were really in love and it didn't get snowed under by the Ash/LaMotte romance. The only thing I didn't like is that bisexuals, again, are portrayed as two-timers. But that's Curse of the Bisexuals (how's that for a Pirates sequel?).

The scenery and the costumes were amazing, so even if you hate the story, you'll keep watching because they are so beautiful.

I give the movie a 7.5/10, because Lena wasn't in it enough and her glasses weren't either.

P.S. Hopefully, the movie is foreboding for my future in English literature.

P.S. I recently got the novel. I can't wait to read it.