PossessionThis is a film about two romances with academia and poetry as its backdrop. Yes, it is a `chick-flick' that begins slowly but picks up somewhat toward the end. What I found most interesting was that the 1859 romance in this film outclasses and upstages the portrayal of the current romance. Jeremy Northam as the long dead poet, Randolph Ash and Jennifer Ehle as Christabel the object of his affection crackle with electric intensity on the screen. Watching them, you feel as though you can read the communication in the looks they send to each other across a room. Unfortunately, the present day sleuths in search of information about them don't come close with their attraction. Gwyneth Paltrow as Dr. Maud Bailey looks sad (her favorite expression) and Alan Eckhart as Roland, the new American on the scene, fakes reading and looks eager and inappropriate. This is probably a little harsh, but I got bored with their romance. Maybe I was too distracted trying to figure out why he didn't shave.Northam is building a significant career. His recent films include The Winslow Boy, An Ideal Husband, Enigma and the role of Ivor Novello in Gosford Park. I have not seen Ehle before. Her career has been mostly TV and a few films over the last ten years. Paltrow seems to be a favorite. At age 30 she has already been in 35 films. Eckhart has had only a few roles, but the films were Erin Brockovitch, Nurse Betty and The Pledge. Eckhart as Roland delivers his best `American' line to an English library clerk when he tells him, ``You are our favorite colony.''

Neil Labute directed this film and he also directed Nurse Betty. I noticed that Eckhart's career has involved several films directed by Labute.

I was hoping for much more from this film since it was based on the A. S. Byatt novel that won the 1990 Booker Prize. The Booker is the highest UK literary award. However, I don't think the fault was with the story line. Neither Paltrow nor Eckhart was believable as a lonely academic doing surreptitious literary research, which was the construct of the novel.

It's interesting that the title Possession was used in 1919 for a romantic silent movie, in 1981 for a horror film and in 1987 for a psychological thriller.