| It
totally blew. Made me wonder how much of the blowing was due
to the source material (Possession: A Romance (Vintage,
1991) by A.S. Byatt), i.e. enough to validate my judging of
the book by its cover? LaBute must’ve lost a poker game
and let one of his Mormon buddies[1]
direct this one. Possession is filmed like an imitation
Merchant Ivory production with a healthy dose of American
and male, operating as it does according to the gender roles
and rules of American rom-coms as dictated by lame dudes.
Aaron Eckhart plays a frat boy bro dressed up as a literary
assistant. Paltrow is the icy Brit whose aloof exterior needs
to be penetrated (ew) by his smug charm. Totally gross. There
was a lot of mancentric stuff in this movie: selfish passive-aggressive
behavior passed off as sensitive and legitimately hurt, a
dramatic climax settled with a punch in the face (which punch
is rewarded with a babe), an otherwise OK guy turned violently
self-righteous over an abortion, etc. I was kind of into the
parallel 19th century romance though. The fluffy male poet
seemed genuine enough. It wasn't even all that offensive when
he turned that dyke woman poet into a hetero. Though I wasn’t
really offended when Ben Affleck did it either (twice!),[2]
just confused and kind of scared inside.
___________________
[1] um, Barry Levinson?
[2] see Chasing
Amy (1997) and Gigli (2003). Or don’t.
|