Review – Possession (2002)

So apparently the answer to the question "Can you make romantic comedies for intellectuals?" is "No." The thesis here is that a couple of professional academics (Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart) discover a trail of letters that romantically link a famous and supposedly happily married poet and a "spinster" (which must have been the 19th century's euphemism for "lesbian"). Their quest to uncover the details of the relationship could have been a clever bit of fun, but weaknesses in the script swiftly slay the promising premise. For starters, I found myself annoyed by the protagonists' willingness to steal documents. Does nobody have a camera phone? Was 2002 really that long ago? But more than that, the awkward dialogue kills any chance that the characters will come across as sympathetic or even human. With an extensive rewrite this might have been a much better movie. Mildly amusing