today's weather: B A S E L I N E anxiety : 1 | agitation : 0
I recently acquired a DVD of a biopic on Sylvia Plath simply entitled Sylvia (someone dropped a box of DVDs on us to sell at our garage sale, consisting mostly of thought-provoking non-commercial films). Gwyneth Paltrow stars as Sylvia, and Daniel Craig (the most recent James Bond) plays her husband, Brit poet Edward Hughes.
I was rather excited to view it, considering I've been wanting to get ahold of a DVD since I heard about the film.Now I'm not one of those Silvia Plath fangirls who write crappy revelatory free-verse, dress in black and exert extra effort to be pretentiously depressed or ostentatiously "suicidal". In fact I'm not very familiar with her verse except for a few works; and I just happen to know she liked using a gloomy tone and she popularized the confessional genre. I do find Sylvia Plath a very interesting, intense lady, and I've been wanting to know her more.
I love the fact at she was a poet, and one who was more or less ignored in her lifetime but celebrated after her death.
I love that she was perceived to have had a twisted, disturbed mind.
I love how she cranked out her unwhitewashed darkness.
I love that she was bipolar too.
And no matter how morbid, I admit I love that bit of true trivia about her death: how she stuck her head in an oven and succeeded in her suicide.
I love that the random Facebook test I took said that I was Sylvia Plath, one intense bitch, haha. I love that people thought that it was pretty cool of the test to associate me with her, and that others tried to force their results to get Sylvia Plath too, but couldn't.
So anyway. Sylvia, the film.
Was a huge disappointment. Not much for entertainment nor information. Didn't like the script at all. It was merely about Sylvia Plath's failed romance with Ted Hughes, and not really about Sylvia herself. I found awkward and corny the way lines of poetry were inserted in the dialogues. I dislike Gwyneth Paltrow to begin with, and she had extra-bad acting in this. Her version of Sylvia is flat and drowsy; boring- nay, tasking to watch or even hear. I did not like how Sylvia Plath was sexied up with the unnecessary bed scenes and a longish nude shot. Sheesh, it was almost a desperate attempt to spice the movie with a fully naked Gwyneth. Bad. Taste.
I hate you, Gwyneth. I hate you even more, Director Chistine Jeffs. You ruined a very interesting, amazing person and immortalized it on film.
Still I decided to keep the DVD. It might be a good reference in the future. Besides, I don't think anyone would buy it at the garage sale since most of our buyers look like they don't even know who Sylvia Plath is.
Next on my list to look for is The Bell Jar, a film based on Plath's semi-biographical novel of the same title. If all goes well, it will be released in 2012. One of my faves, Julia Stiles has been cast as Esther Greenwood, the antiheroic protagonist symbolic of Plath. I hope it won't be a letdown.
