POSSESSION

With a story like this, it can't be helped that when much of the language and words are axed for translation to the screen, much of the magic of the story is lost.

The novel Possession by A.S. Byatt is one of those books so literary that the story actually revolves around literature itself. Two modern scholars of two historic (fictional) English poets discover some long lost love letters between the two. While researching the untold mystery behind this previously unknown passionate affair, the two scholars end up falling for each other.

The book is dense with not only entire poems by the fictional poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte, but contains the entire contents of the whole correspondence of love letters between the two. I have to admit, it took me three tries to get past page 50, but once I finally got into it (admittedly simply scanning some of the pages and pages of Olde English letters), the book was quite a gripping mystery.

So it is inevitable that the movie will be judged as an adaptation of this wordiest of wordy books. And with a story like this, it can't be helped that when much of the language and words are axed for translation to the screen, much of the magic of the story is lost, and we are left with the two parallel and somewhat tepid romances spanning two centuries.

The film dutifully splits time between the historic love affair and the modern one. Poets Ash and LaMotte are played by perhaps the two most beautiful people you could imagine in the roles (Jeremy Northam of Gosford Park, and Jennifer Ehle of Pride and Prejudice), and these scenes look absolutely gorgeous. Christabel is swathed in cloaks of fabric that could clothe a whole African village, with fashions reminiscent of the Oscar-winning frocks of Wings of the Dove. Ash, with his fluffy hair, sideburns, tall boots, and long riding jacket, is simply a hottie. And he's a poet? Well, bonus!

The modern counterparts are literary scholars Maud and Roland, played by Gwynnie and Aaron Eckhart (Your Friends and Neighbors, Erin Brockovich's biker boyfriend). Gwyneth does her pinched British impression, furrows her brow, ties her hair up in a severe bun, and always wears beige. Eckhart's character of Roland is turned into an AMERICAN (differing from the poor academic Brit of the book), which provides a ridiculously excessive amount of boorish-American jokes. Talk about beating a stereotype to death. And it's a bit hard to believe Roland is really an academic, despite his disheveled hair and corduroy jacket. And thank god Eckhardt only reads the letters out loud for half a scene (lets just say I hope he doesn't do any books on tape). Anyways, their romance was less than convincing.

Despite Northam and Ehle doing their best with emoting to voice-over love-letters, Possession is still ends up strangely lacking. Adaptations of thick, dense novels to the screen is always a tricky task. The paring down of Possession just emphasizes the secondary weakness of the novel (the somewhat typical mystery), while completely glossing over what was great about the book: the romance of the written word.