Sylvia Movie Review 2003

Paltrow gamely takes on the life of the talented but tortured American poet Sylvia Plath in Jeff's bummer biopic. Following Plath's seven-year marriage to English poet Ted Hughes (Craig) until her 1963 suicide in London at 30, pic deals impartially with the details of the affair that caused Plath to jettison Hughes. Also explores her mental illness and long-time grief over her father's death, as well as her conflicted feelings over the dueling roles of artist and wife/mother, and icon for budding feminist issues. Thoughtfully directed, although Paltrow doesn't quite get her teeth into the challenging role.

Distribution

Universal Studios Home Video, 100 Universal City Plz., Universal City, CA 91608-9955, Phone: (818)777-1000, Fax: (818)866-1483, URL: http://www.universalstudios.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 110 minutes.
Originally from British.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Marriage, Suicide, Writers, Poetry, Period Piece: 1950s, Period Piece: 1960s, Great Britain, Adultery, Sex & Sexuality, Campus Capers, Jealousy, Obsessive Love, Sanity Check, Biopics: Writers

Screenplay

John Brownlow

Cast

Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Amira Casar, Andrew Havill, Sam Troughton, Anthony Strachan, Lucy Davenport, Blythe Danner, Michael Gambon, David Birkin, Michael Mears

Cinematography

John Toon

Director

Christine Jeffs

Music

Gabriel Yared

Other

David Crozier, Tariq Anwar, Jane Cecchi, Sandy Powell, Maria Djurkovic

Producer

Alison Owen, BBC Films, Capitol Films, Ruby Films, Focus Features