August 27, 2002
MarkBernstein.org
 

Possession

The new adaptation of Byatt's Possession is everything you could fairly ask of the movie. It's a shadow of the book, because there's no way for a film to convey the exuberance of Byatt's creating the literary work and generations of scholarship of two distinct but entirely imaginary Victorian poets. The film is just a romance, but it's a good romance.

The screenplay makes Roland Michell into an American, which works brilliantly, and makes Maud Bailey into a lovestruck young professor, which works less well because she ought to be significantly older and more powerful than her hapless Roland.

Possession is a better movie than The Name of the Rose, makes an intriguing pair with The French Lieutenant's Woman, and it's well worth seeing.

Dolly keeps a secret better than a friend,
Dolly's silent sympathy lasts without end.