gemini_dremz This biography of the relationship between poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes is beautifully played out in this film. If anyone knows anything about either of them, they would certainly be able to see the uncanny reality of the actors portraying them. I thought Gwyneth Paltrow portrayed the depressed Plath in the truest form. I found the part of Ted Hughes, played superbly by Daniel Craig, rather fascinating. Being a ladies man, he was never faithful, not even to his lover, Assia Gutmann who also committed suicide by gas oven, taking the life of her four year old daughter in the process. Though we do not see Assia and Ted's relationship fall apart, we do see how it developed. The movie is entirely about the tumultuous relationship between Hughes and Plath and how her insecurities, which are made to appear psychotic, are actually true. Her sense of Ted's cheating comes to fruition and it kills her, literally. If you like biographical films, this one is a winner. On another note, the son of Sylvia and Ted also committed suicide March 3, 2009. It seems Mr. Hughes, had survived the tragedies surrounding him until his own death by cancer in 1998.

ursulahemard Pretty good indeed! It's the first time that Gwyneth Paltrow really impressed me; she interprets wonderfully Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) in this historically accurate biopic of the clinically depressed and bipolar poetess who committed suicide at the early age of 30.Even though the story starts in Cambridge, at the University where the 20 something year old Sylvia was studying, right when she meets the poet and writer Ted Hughes, there are enough hints to learn about her previous tormented life as well.The movie depicts how the two like-minded, Sylvia and Ted Hughes (a very good Daniel Craig), fall in love, encouraging and inspiring each other passionately in the same literary field. Ultimately though, the submitted woman, dutiful wife and naturally responsible mother of two is hindered to fully let herself flourish artistically and becomes a shadow to her internationally successful, admired and philandering husband. The movie is focusing mainly on this part and I regret a bit that were not more literary hints of her own haunting and heartfelt work for besides of being a neat and conscientious housewife and caretaker, for she did write during this time. Therefore, biographically a tad chopped to my taste.Later many feminists accused Ted Hughes of having had jeopardised Sylvia's creativity and even boycotted her to be successful out of fear of competition, I guess a little bit in the same way as August Rodin stepped on Camille Claudel.Beautifully filmed with the colours and shades of a 50's movie and the touching soundtrack suits perfectly, setting the right mood to the individual frames and some recited poems. Some nudity but not too repulsively graphic sex scenes, consequently watchable to the interested Teenager who's not afraid of some desolate melancholia and gloominess; my 14 year old daughter loves Gwyneth and watched this movie not only once.

miloc This biopic suffers a fatal omission: poetry. That's a problem, given that the two main characters are Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, two of the more celebrated poets of their time, and doubtless the lack of their work in the movie stems from the hostility of their respective literary estates to the making of this film. Which begs the question: then why make the film?If the filmmakers believed that the natural drama of the situation was enough to cover the lack, then they seem to have erred. Without their verse -- which other characters helpfully inform us is really really good -- we are left with two rather problematic subjects. Plath (Gwyneth Paltrow, giving an extraordinarily fine portrait of fragility and mental illness) comes off as a clinical case rather than a character -- we gather that she wrote some powerful poems and something else called "The Bell Jar," which sounds nice for her, but all we get to see is a troubled young woman who, without treatment, clearly would have been bent on self-destruction no matter whom she married or what line of work she took up. This is deeply sad but not inherently dramatic. (Here we have the difference between "that which is tragic" and "a tragedy.")Hughes (Daniel Craig) suffers even worse by the loss. Since we have no insight into his soul, artwise, and no context with which to evaluate or respect his abilities, he comes off as a plot device rather than a person. (The only poem he reads is by Yeats.) Craig has a hooded gunmetal stare, a rumbling voice and the physique of an action star, and his casting here as a future laureate holds interest: a poet with the physical presence of a prizefighter. (Although has any real poet/children's' book author ever really been that buff?) But the script lets him drift, and all he can do is stride around looking worried and vaguely guilty. Ultimately the only thing we really have to go on is that Hughes seems to have done well with the ladies. As insight goes, that's not much.The movie is well-shot, and occasionally moving, but more often than not its only virtue is to provide an incentive to seek out these writers' frustrating missing words for ourselves. Perhaps then we can see what all the fuss was about.

refinexme I am terrified to believe that the millions of people who watched this movie without actually understanding who Sylvia Plath was, her intellect, her raw and beautifully successful poetry, will come away from this movie thinking she was an untalented, petty, nagging, weak, depressed housewife who never came up with a single poem. The biggest error that Jeffs made while making this movie was excluding Plath's personal thoughts and perspective. There is a plethora of information in her journals. The Most Important part of Plath was her mind. Exluding her thoughts from the movie was similar to coring out the essence of who Plath was. Biographical information is incorrect. Random scenes are put together simply so Plath (Paltrow, who was not impressive, but this is due to the horrible script)could artificially reminisce about her suicide attempt. The only thing this film did well was portray Ted Hughes' malignant betrayal and unfaithfulness. Sylvia Plath DID NOT forgive him. If you saw the movie forget everything you saw and read a friggen book.