Sylvia

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Sylvia

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Sylvia

Alison Bruce, Amira Casar, Andrew Havill, Anthony Strachan, Blythe Danner

The story of celebrated American poet Sylvia Plath and her turbulent marriage to a future poet laureate of England, Ted Hughes. Ted and Sylvia was a sensuous, volatile and brilliant couple who emerged...( read more  read more... ) as two of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Sylvia committed suicide in 1963, at the age of thirty, after being left by Ted.

Id: 7723291

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  • groaningbitch
    July 31, 2009
    groaningbitch
    "sylvia" is a mighty bio-piece of the legendary poetess sylvia plath who terminated her own life by sticking her head into an oven, but mainly about her famous/infamous relationship with british laureate ted hughes who firstly achieved fame by his "hawk in the rain"...personally ...( read more)i absolutely cannot buy into the movie's premise that this is one of the most essential romances in 20th century...but to appreciate "sylvia", you've got to hypnotize yourself with such notion.

    so sylvia plath is a genius woman who's been obssessed with death after her dad passed suddenly when she was 9, then this young lady with such explosively sparkling intelligence falls under the spell of talented ted hughes who has the magnetism to frighten her off with challenging attractiveness as sylvia's mom puts it bluntly. except hughes' extraordinary gift as a poet, he has nothing adequately made for an ideal husband or father: he's a womanizer, an egoist whose priority is not family but his own recognition and he cannot really offer any solid tenderness to her except some momentary stormy passion. in several scenes of his infidelity, he even angers at her then returns to her later with a brief "sorry, i love you" but still keeps on the same mistakes afterwards. but how about sylvia herself? she's also quite a difficult person with some serious symptoms of paranoia and some severe torments of her death wishes, not easy to get along with, either. it proves one fatal point that if two strong egos build a bond together, the union's doomed to collide into the ruin of one side which is more brittle with stubborn frailty. besides, why brilliant woman likes to be with such arrogant man to be your "black marauder" (as sylvia herself dubs it in her poem) who mostly takes and rarely gives? why not appreciative gentleman who admires the soils you step upon as talented man always marries submissive woman who's easy to handle?

    gwyneth paltrow amazes me with her showcasing performances, and before i only thought of her as someone who makes her success by dubbing herself with a tangibly conventional east-coast glamour, a grace-kelly-wanna-be. the other surprise would be daniel craig as ted hughes, he's much more appealing as hughes than his later smashing role as millennium james bond. his ruggedness and ballistic energy are all demonstrated quite well as his winsome qualities for a leading man. craig serves an effective purpose to romanticize ted hughes in numerous smoldering love scenes with paltrow, and a sizzling feverish spunk could be felt upon him then somehow you could comprehend why she's so much into him. daniel craig's never been as sensual as he is in "sylvia", but since he was not so well-famed then so the focus of "sylvia" is still majorly on paltrow as her vehicle.

    in a nutshell, calling the relationship of ted and sylvia one of the essential romances or great loves in 20th century is a hypocritical and absurd idea in spite of all the engrossing intensities the leads have projected on screen, even by watching the movie itself, you could feel this match is bad sass tailored by a woman's compulsively masochistic drive, her own strong need of self-victimization, no wonder of her choice over ted hughes whose second wife also commits sucide in the same way as sylvia plath: head in the oven.

    besides, it is spoiling enough to have all these literary feuds posed by their separate enthusiastic readers that include those who accuse hughes as chauvinistic asshole who tortures sylvia and those who condemn plath as abrasive psychobitch whose haunting intimidations push her lover away. additionally, some controversial editing problems on hughes' manipulated erase of evidence over sylvia's diaries and parts of her words against him aren't quite plesant to dig into as well. so, wouldn't you find it odd to make an epic romance on a couple of such obvious discord???
  • lavenderfawn
    June 5, 2007
    lavenderfawn
    So very good. We all know how it ends...and not good. It is a very good look at one of my favorite poets of all time. Plath in her writing and touches a part of my soul never revealed to any human.
  • mjgildea
    April 12, 2007
    mjgildea
    I saw it a few years ago and remember not really caring. The scenes before Plath eventually kills herself (sorry if I'm ruining anything for anyone here) are mildly entertaining and maybe I'm a freak here, but I've always been a sucker for a Gwyneth Paltrow sex scene.
  • Fragglefreak
    October 25, 2008
    Fragglefreak
    Very good biopic that's faithful to the life of Sylvia Plath and shows a lot of similarities to her and her character in the Bell Jar.
  • Hellshocked
    May 5, 2007
    Hellshocked
    Dying
    Is an art, like everything else.
    I do it exceptionally well.

    I do it so it feels like hell.
    I do it so it feels real.
    I guess you could say I've a call.

    ---------------------------------------

    I am your opus,
    I am your valuable,
    The pure gold baby
    ...( read more)
    That melts to a shriek.
    I turn and burn.
    Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

    Ash, ash---
    You poke and stir.
    Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----
    A cake of soap,
    A wedding ring,
    A gold filling.

    Herr God, Herr Lucifer
    Beware
    Beware.

    Out of the ash
    I rise with my red hair
    And I eat men like air.


    With the first group of lines above, an excerpt from Sylvia Plath's undeniable masterpiece "Lady Lazarus", this film opens. With the second, from the same source, it should have closed.

    Sylvia Plath is my favorite poet, so this is a film I'd been keeping my eye on for quite a while. With the casting of Gwynneth Paltrow I almost hyperventilated. I am no fan of hers, and she did not strike me Plath-like in any way, save perhaps the coldness with which she delivers her performances. I confess to being pleasantly surprised, however. Not only is Paltrow a decent stand-in for Sylvia, but the film is very well done, a bit simplistic perhaps, but courageously refusing to resort to exploitation or cheap manipulation to get its points across.

    It is beautifully photographed and well structured, certainly. Daniel Craig has an interesting, very masculine take on Ted Hughes which somehow works and there is nothing inherently 'wrong' with the film itself. However, for a Sylvia Plath fan there is little here I had not seen or read before, so at times it felt more like an excercise than an artistic experience. "The Bell Jar" this is not.

    Still, I did enjoy it. It was directed withan artist's eye and, for someone whose life was tragically predicated around 3 suicides, the film is not morbid at all. I am not too sure what the average film goer will get out of it, but I don't really care either. Boo.
  • F0XyF0x
    December 11, 2009
    F0XyF0x
    I enjoyed this movie. Very depressing though
  • theloneowl
    November 6, 2009
    theloneowl
    Mah, non capisco perché scegliere la Paltrow per interpretare una come la Plath.
    Insulso.
  • animefreakbloodgoth
    September 21, 2009
    animefreakbloodgoth
    it was good but it was really really sad ...
    I feel her pain.
  • bradsteph
    September 11, 2009
    bradsteph
    Although I'm not keen on Gwyneth Paltrow as an actress her portrayal of Plath was excellent and Craig as England's poet laureate Ted Hughes was brilliant. Tragic story.
  • SFG71
    August 22, 2009
    SFG71
    Paltrow best performance.
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