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Posession

The movie Posession was based on the book Possession: A Romance.

Which one did you like better, the movie or the book?  There are 3 votes for the book, and 5 votes for the movie.

Movie details for Posession

The movie was released in 2002 and directed by Neil LaBute. Posession was produced by Universal Studios. More information on the movie is available on Amazon.com and also IMDb.

Actors on this movie include Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Lena Headey, Holly Aird, Toby Stephens, Trevor Eve, Tom Hickey, Georgia Mackenzie, Tom Hollander, Graham Crowden, Anna Massey, Craig Crosbie, Christopher Good, Elodie Frenck, Victoria Bensted, Shelley Conn, Jonty Stephens and Alexi Kaye Campbell.

 

Read More About This Movie

Modern love and classic romantic passion meet in this lush adaptation of A.S. Byatt's brilliant novel. Academics Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) and Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) are experts on the work of two different Victorian poets. As they pursue a po... Read More
Modern love and classic romantic passion meet in this lush adaptation of A.S. Byatt's brilliant novel. Academics Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) and Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) are experts on the work of two different Victorian poets. As they pursue a possible connection between their subjects, the two sleuths begin to stumble toward a romance of their own. Though it necessarily loses some of the depth of Byatt's original, Possession is a worthy adaptation, faithful to the book in both story and spirit. Director Neil LaBute uses clever and visually elegant methods of switching back and forth between time periods, subtly contrasting the prickly moderns and the swoony Victorians without making either pair seem unappealing. The movie also does an excellent job of capturing the exhilaration (and the politics) of intellectual discovery, and feels truly romantic without ever getting icky. Though Paltrow and Eckhart both succeed as the modern leads, the real standouts are Jeremy Northam as Randolph Henry Ash and Jennifer Ehle as Christabel LaMotte. Their passion gives the movie its romantic core and makes the whole search worthwhile. --Ali Davis

Book details for Possession: A Romance

Possession: A Romance was written by A. S. Byatt. The book was published in 1990 by Vintage. More information on the book is available on Amazon.com.

A. S. Byatt also wrote Angels & Insects (1992).

 

Read More About This Book

"Literary critics make natural detectives," says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters, and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love... Read More
"Literary critics make natural detectives," says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters, and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser-known "fairy poetess" and chaste spinster. At first, Roland and Maud's discovery threatens only to alter the direction of their research, but as they unearth the truth about the long-forgotten romance, their involvement becomes increasingly urgent and personal. Desperately concealing their purpose from competing researchers, they embark on a journey that pulls each of them from solitude and loneliness, challenges the most basic assumptions they hold about themselves, and uncovers their unique entitlement to the secret of Ash and La Motte's passion.

Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize--the U.K.'s highest literary award--Possession is a gripping and compulsively readable novel. A.S. Byatt exquisitely renders a setting rich in detail and texture. Her lush imagery weaves together the dual worlds that appear throughout the novel--the worlds of the mind and the senses, of male and female, of darkness and light, of truth and imagination--into an enchanted and unforgettable tale of love and intrigue. --Lisa Whipple