A.S. Byatt's wonderful, highly literary, and all-but-unfilmable novel was brought to the screen in 2002, surprisingly, by director Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Nurse Betty). It's the story of two modern-day academics in Britain (the male changed from a lower-class Brit to an American) tracking a mystery about two Victorian-era poets. Roland Michell finds the draft of a letter that suggests Randolph Henry Ash might have had contact with Christabel LaMott, and he enlists prissy, ultra-feminist scholar Maud Bailey to help him investigate. Eckhart and Paltrow are out of their depth as the moderns, Northam and Ehle do marvelous things with very little script as the Victorians. The photography, sets, and soundtrack are marvelous. A mixed bag, but a valiant attempt.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
