Possession

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Possession

PG-13

Released Aug 16, 2002

1h 42m

Romance

Drama

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Popcornmeter

64%

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153 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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Charlotte O'Sullivan

Sight & Sound

The irony is that LaBute (revising a screenplay by Laura Jones) has added syrup to the romances and drained out the danger.

Nov 5, 2002

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Jamie Russell

BBC.com

Suffocated by its fussy script and uptight characters, this musty adaptation is all the more annoying since it's been packaged and sold back to us by Hollywood.

Rated: 2/5

Oct 13, 2002

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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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John H

2025 already. This is not a current movie. In Possession, you are invited into two worlds. Both today’s and also an earlier time where certain relationships were not fashionable. What emerges is a duet of love stories . . . each plausible. Both sets of players could be real, their lives entirely possible in their own periods. The earlier romance somewhat complicated for obvious reasons. The current romance complicated by a society with confused standards at times. You may identify with any of the major characters. I did. With two of them. Scene changes were magical at times, submerged in perfect background music which lifted the plotline throughout. Nice pace. Interesting plotlines. Nicely re-written for the screen. Everything ‘happenable’. And this continued to be exciting until the bitter end. “Bitter’, as you will find, leaving you to clench your fists as the love message is left to the wind. I hesitate to admit that even as a guy, the movie revealed me to be more of a romantic than I expected. I enjoyed this production to the extent that I bought the hardback later. Four stars is an honest appraisal.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/10/25

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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

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: USA Films, Baltimore Spring Creek, Warner Brothers
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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