Possession

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Possession

PG-13

Released Aug 16, 2002

1h 42m

Romance

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

64%

Tomatometer

155 Reviews

58%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), a brilliant English academic, is researching the life and work of poet Christabel La Motte. Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) is an American scholar in London to study Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam), now best-known for a collection of poems dedicated to his wife. When Maud and Roland discover a cache of love letters that appear to be from Ash to La Motte, they follow a trail of clues across England, echoing the journey of the couple over a century earlier.

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Critics Consensus

It's perhaps a bit tame and uninspiring, considering its subject matter, but Possession manages enough romance and period intrigue to satisfy most fans of its source material.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Glossy romance with pretty people.

Rated: 4/5

Dec 27, 2010

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Empire Magazine

Rated: 3/5

May 2, 2003

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Kimberley Jones

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 2.5/5

Mar 10, 2003

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Jan Stuart

The Advocate

Possession is finally too truncated for material that wants to be a sinuous six-hour miniseries.

Jul 27, 2021

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

A film like this rides on the quality of the acting, and the Brits -- Northam and Ehle -- invest their forbidden love with centuries of fine repressed English tradition.

Rated: B

Sep 22, 2007

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Film Threat

Rated: 4/5

Jan 9, 2006

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Lanfranco C

Traveling in the past, but with a little boredom.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/02/24

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Alec B

A mostly boring romance and mystery. It's a shame that the recurring theft of primary source documents doesn't really go anywhere.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/28/24

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colin m

Boring movie retracing the love life of some poet. Uninteresting stuff.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Radheshwari S

This is one of my all-time favourite movies. Maybe because it is full of that intense romantic mood I still believe is so close to pure Heaven on Earth. It's about poets, lovers and Eternity.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

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John H

2021 now. This is not a current movie. In Possession, you are invited into two worlds. Both today's and also an earlier life where certain relationships, even at that time, were unique. What emerges is a duet of love stories . . . each plausible. Both sets of players could be real, their lives entirely possible in their own times. The earlier romance somewhat complicated for obvious reasons. The recent romance complicated by established and accepted social mores. You may identify with any of the five characters. I did. With two of them. And this continued to be exciting until the bitter end. 'Bitter', as you will find, entirely apropos. I blush to admit that -even as a guy- this movie reveals me to be a hopeless romantic. Thoroughly enjoyed this production to extent that I purchased the hardback book afterwards. Four stars is an honest appraisal. Nice pace. Interesting plotline(s). Nicely re-written for the screen. Everything 'happenable'.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

08/20/21

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Audience Member

I was drawn to this more from the curiosity of how they would adapt Byatt's source material for the screen, as the novel is essentially a literary detective story relying on uncovered letters from the past, found by scholars in the present, to move along the majority of the plot action. Any director or screenwriter was probably biting off more than they could chew here as it was never going to be easy getting the unique storytelling device used in the novel to create same effect in a 100 minute film. This movie was a reminder and prime example why I don't think it is fair to rate movies based on novels I have previously read.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

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Neil LaBute

Director

Gwyneth Paltrow

Maud Bailey

Aaron Eckhart

Roland Michell

Jeremy Northam

Randolph Henry Ash

Jennifer Ehle

Christabel LaMotte

Lena Headey

Blanche Glover

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Synopsis

Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow), a brilliant English academic, is researching the life and work of poet Christabel La Motte. Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) is an American scholar in London to study Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam), now best-known for a collection of poems dedicated to his wife. When Maud and Roland discover a cache of love letters that appear to be from Ash to La Motte, they follow a trail of clues across England, echoing the journey of the couple over a century earlier.

Director: Neil LaBute
Producer: Barry Levinson, Paula Weinstein
Screenwriter: A.S. Byatt, David Henry Hwang, Laura Jones, Neil LaBute
Distributor: USA Films
Production Co: Warner Brothers, USA Films, Baltimore Spring Creek
Rating: PG-13 (Some Thematic Elements|Sexuality)
Genre: Romance, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 16, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $10.1M
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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