I saw this movie this past weekend after it sat around my apartment for waaaay too long from netflix. Now I realize why it did, it simply wasn’t very good. I felt next to no attachment to our literary heroine, there wasn’t enough poetry recited, and it was boring. I sort of expected there to be a lot of poetry being read and it to be boring because of that, but instead there wasn’t enough poetry and that seems to have actually made it more boring.
And actually, it wasn’t that I felt no attachment to her, it was worse than that, they actually managed to make her out to seem totally insane and pretty worthless. I will have to accept that whoever wrote this just doesn’t like her and the film reflected that. Most of all this makes me want to go read Birthday Letters, which I haven’t. (Yes, it makes me want to go read her husband’s work more than her’s–but like I said, his movie really hates on her.) So please don’t see this movie, just go read a book.
p.s. that’s really her, not Gwyneth though they do look quite similar.
comments
kt
Dec 12, 02:44 PM #
dear patrick- i noticed you uploaded a picture of sylvia onto flickr, and thought you might have written something about her in your blog. i have to disagree with you. sylvia plath is my favorite poet of all time, i’ve read all of her poems, her novel/short stories and her journals. [and even some of ted’s birthday letters]. and i enjoyed the movie. i don’t think it hated on her in the least, and i don’t think it made her appear more crazy than she really was. i think in order for one to understand her, one might have to be female. i don’t consider myself terribly crazy, though i know i have, and many other women have, been driven to the edge of their sanity by a man. sylvia was already very unstable, i don’t know if you know much of her death, but she was on a medication in the UK that she’d been taken off of in the US due to it’s effects on her, it made her more neurotic, more depressed, more ‘crazy’. the medication was called something else in the UK, and some believe had she NOT been on it, she may still be alive, or at least would have lived longer. i don’t think sylvia plath was above or beyond the typical men-problems many, or most, women go through: a cheating or lying significant other, the insecurities felt over a younger, prettier woman, etc. what this movie didn’t do was elevate sylvia plath above other woman, because, other than her poetry and prose, she was no different than the rest of us- she suffered the same ailments, she obsessed over her husband, she wanted to kill her husband because he cheated, she was insecure, unsure, and because of her underlying mental illness, these very ordinary life experiences were magnified to a level where she could no longer control them or live with them. if you felt sylvia was worthless in the film, then you might feel most women behave worthlessly, there wasn’t anything that happened in that movie that i haven’t seen myself or most women do at some low point in life. the movie wasn’t phenomenal, but it was enjoyable, it was a dramatized, hollywood version of her life, but what do you expect? i agree, there wasn’t enough poetry, but hollywood always prefers drama over literature. i don’t usually comment on blogs, especially those of people i hardly know, but i felt a small need to defend my favorite writer, and also myself.
jp
Dec 12, 05:44 PM #
kt: I don’t post on people’s blogs much either, but I think I must agree with Patrick here. The lack of respect for her work during the film showed a lack of respect to such an influential mind. This movie downplayed the literature (which I think you would agree with) and like you said, was dramatized. Even so, I feel the movie still didn’t appeal to popular audiences and probably insulted some of her fans. And for what reason?
kellyCAHILL
Dec 15, 03:16 PM #
I LIKED THAT MOVIE. golly, patrick.
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