Poet and novelist Sylvia Plath is generally regarded as one of the finest literary talents of the 20th Century. She worked prolifically through the 50s and early 60s on a string of renowned books, including Ariel, The Bell Jar and The Colossus, and has garnered even more critical acclaim since her death in 1963. If this dramatisation of her life is anything to go by, she was also mad as a sack of badgers.
The array of promo posters for this BBC-produced biopic show Plath, portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow, smiling contentedly and even laughing but a far more accurate depiction of the film would be a picture of her nuttily chucking a tray of plates against a wall. Happiness, you see, is the last thing this film is about and its the last thing youre likely to feel whilst watching it.
The main focus of the piece is her doomed marriage to Ted Eddie Baby Hughes (Daniel Craig), a man who was none to shabby with a pen himself. In fact, given their shared passion for iambic pentameter, you might think theyd make the perfect couple. Unfortunately, his bed-hopping and her afore-mentioned barmyness put a bit of a strain on the relationship.
This is a well-acted and well-made drama, but its not exactly the most interesting story ever told. Its also made a bit ridiculous by the fact that Plaths real-life family refused to allow the film-makers permission to use any of her work, leaving us with almost two hours of a movie about a famous poet in which we dont get to hear as much as a line of her famous poetry. So, if youre not familiar with Plaths work and you dont know why so many people like her, you wont be any the wiser after watching this and, if you ARE familiar with her work, youre unlikely to find anything either new or insightful in it.