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27
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47
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54
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93
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82
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79
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78
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73
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72
Ghost Town
71
Tropic Thunder
71
Horton Hears a Who!
70
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65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
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64
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64
Pineapple Express
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
62
Burn After Reading
62
Body of Lies
61
Incredible Hulk, The
60
Traitor
57
Flash of Genius
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
55
House Bunny, The
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
54
Express, The
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Rocker, The
53
Lucky Ones, The
52
Longshots, The
51
Mamma Mia!
51
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
49
Family That Preys, The
47
Swing Vote
47
RocknRolla
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
46
Lakeview Terrace
45
Blindness
43
Meet Dave
43
Death Race
43
Eagle Eye
42
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
39
Nights in Rodanthe
37
Miracle at St. Anna
36
Space Chimps
36
Righteous Kill
36
Fly Me to the Moon
36
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Mirrors
34
Happening, The
34
My Best Friend's Girl
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
27
Women, The
26
Babylon A.D.
24
Bangkok Dangerous
24
Love Guru, The
23
American Carol, An
15
Disaster Movie
15
College
xx
City of Ember
xx
Quarantine
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80
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xx
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72
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83
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83
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39
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75
Young@Heart
89
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86
Momma's Man
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Edge of Heaven, The
85
Alexandra
84
Up the Yangtze
83
U2 3D
83
Trouble the Water
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
81
Ballast
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
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80
Moving Midway
79
Visitor, The
78
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78
Last Mistress, The
77
Pool, The
75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
74
Mongol
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
73
Obscene
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Secret, A
72
Priceless
72
Transsiberian
72
I Served the King of England
71
To the Limit
71
I.O.U.S. A
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
68
Happy-Go-Lucky
67
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
67
XXY
67
Jellyfish
66
Elegy
66
American Teen
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
65
August Evening
65
Flow: For Love of Water
64
Brideshead Revisited
64
Duchess, The
64
Fall, The
64
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
63
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63
Appaloosa
63
Man Named Pearl, A
63
Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Kabluey
62
Baghead
62
Girls Rock!
62
Mister Foe
61
Bustin' Down the Door
61
Wackness, The
61
Brick Lane
61
Red
59
Beautiful Losers
58
Save Me
57
Towelhead
57
Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela, The
57
Good Dick
57
Sixty Six
56
Bottle Shock
56
Then She Found Me
55
Year of the Fish
55
Religulous
55
Bra Boys
55
Sukiyaki Western Django
55
Battle in Seattle
55
Ping Pong Playa
54
Hamlet 2
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
54
What We Do Is Secret
53
Humboldt County
53
Allah Made Me Funny: Live in Concert
52
Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Last Stop for Paul
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Before the Rains
47
Choke
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
46
My Mexican Shivah
45
Shoot on Sight
44
Henry Poole is Here
41
Cthulhu
40
America the Beautiful
40
Igor
39
Forgiveness
39
Young People F**king
37
Forever Strong
33
Elite Squad
31
Hounddog
28
Fireproof
26
Everybody Wants to Be Italian
25
Hell Ride
16
Surfer, Dude
xx
Phoebe in Wonderland
xx
All of Us
xx
Whaledreamers
xx
Ashes of Time Redux
xx
Breakfast with Scot
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
xx
Choose Connor
xx
W.
xx
Christmas on Mars: A Fantastical Film Freakout Featuring the Flaming Lips
xx
Nights and Weekends
xx
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xx
Beer for My Horses
xx
Just Buried
xx
Lower Learning
xx
Call and Response
xx
Billy: The Early Years
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Sylvia
Focus Features
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for sexuality/nudity and language
Starring
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Daniel Craig,
Blythe Danner,
Lucy Davenport,
Michael Gambon,
Jared Harris,
Eliza Wade,
and
Amira Casar
Paltrow stars as legendary American author and poet Sylvia Plath, opposite Craig as British Poet Laureate Edward (Ted) Hughes. The film explores the source of creative genius, and love in all its passion. (Focus Features)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Romance
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
John Brownlow
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Christine Jeffs
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD:
Video: February 10, 2004
Theatrical: October 17, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
100 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
91
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
This is the richest role Paltrow has had since ''Shakespeare in Love,'' and she rises to the challenge. She digs deep into Plath's mercurial nature, giving us a Sylvia who's fiercely independent and alive yet burdened with demons of insecurity that bubble up in a rage.

90
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Christine Jeffs has directed it with discretion and intimacy, almost a paradoxical privacy.

80
Empire
June Howdel
Though the sketchy narrative could do with a bit of filling out, and the settings could be less gloomy, this is a memorable interpretation that benefits enormously from sound casting decisions.

80
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Christine Jeffs's film is an emotionally rich biography of the poet Sylvia Plath, who is played with radiant conviction by Gwyneth Paltrow.

80
Dallas Observer
Gregory Weinkauf
As a film it's mostly top-notch work. Kiwi director Christine Jeffs has taken the poignant, thoughtful screenplay of erstwhile documentarian John Brownlow and rendered it a moving mood-piece of subtlety and ever-encroaching sorrow.

80
LA Weekly
Ron Stringer
The excellent cast is headed by Gwyneth Paltrow in the mood-shifting title role and Daniel Craig as the helpless, not-so-happily philandering Hughes.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Paltrow's performance in Sylvia doesn't have Oscar- worthy depth, but it's a solid, sincere portrayal that captures enough sides of Plath's complex personality to enrich the movie, directed with impressive visual power by New Zealand filmmaker Christine Jeffs.

75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
For those who have read the poets and are curious about their lives, Sylvia provides illustrations for the biographies we carry in our minds.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
Sylvia the movie competently shows us how; but, as always, it's Sylvia the writer who brilliantly tells us why -- then, now and tomorrow, her foreboding words are her finest legacy.

75
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
At heart, Sylvia is constructed as a psychological suspense film framed around the ambiguities of Hughes's infidelity and Plath's resulting paranoia. So at its strangest, the movie is a potboiler.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
What Jeffs -- and Paltrow -- do capture is the shroud of tragedy that hovered over Plath.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Despite an exceptional performance by Paltrow, whose Plath is a layer cake of infinite intelligence and bottomless need, Jeffs' film is an icy affair lacking the fever of Plath's and Hughes' poems.

63
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Paltrow does this role exceptionally well, but it is underwritten.

63
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Doesn't shed much light on the fragile and enigmatic writer whose myth has nearly obscured the real woman.

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Sylvia underwhelms.

63
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
You can also see Sylvia without realizing she could be witty and bemused, qualities apparent in her posthumously published novel, "The Bell Jar." This book, which spoke to sensitive girls of the 1960s like few others, is mentioned once in passing in the film. We never see her writing it or learn what it means to her.

60
Slate
David Edelstein
Frustratingly anemic, the filmmakers hiding behind their good taste and sensitivity. They might as well have gone for broke, since Plath and Hughes' daughter accused them of monstrous exploitation anyway.

60
TV Guide
Ken Fox
While there's plenty of Shakespeare, Lawrence and Yeats scattered throughout John Brownlow's screenplay, there's precious little Plath -- no doubt the unfortunate result of the stranglehold the Hughes estate still maintains over her work.

60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Aside from Paltrow's performance, Sylvia is neither a film so spectacular it shouldn't be missed nor something so tepid you have to stay away.

60
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
A not-very-good movie about a fascinating and underexplored subject: the unknowability of a marriage.

60
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
A handsome, mostly tasteful production on par with 2001's Bayley-Murdoch impersonation "Iris."

60
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Still, there is an estimable integrity to the respect and fidelity with which the film regards its subjects, as well as an honesty in its attempt to illuminate the essences of these difficult people.

60
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Having dreaded the prospect of Sylvia, I admired it precisely because it refuses to play along with the mythologizing that has sprung up, and vulgarized, the lives of two poets. [20 October 2003, p. 206]
50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
In spite of Frieda Hughes' objections, a few snippets of Plath's poetry slip into Sylvia, but they don't do the movie any favors--they just add more weight to a story that already buckles at the knees.

50
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
The movie doesn't shed much light on their famously contentious marriage. Instead, it spreads gloom all around.
50
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Paltrow looks glam even in death, which only supports the notion, raised by Plaths daughter Frieda Hughes, that the movie would be about a "Sylvia Suicide Doll." Good call.

50
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
The problem with Christine Jeffss Sylvia, as with most movies about deeply troubled artists, is that for the most part we are seeing the troubles and not the artist.

50
New York Post
Megan Lehmann
This frigid and inaccessible period piece wears its glumness like a shroud.

50
Chicago Tribune
Mark Caro
It's a dreary movie about a dreary character, offering little insight into her poetry or the mental illness that ultimately conquered her.

50
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Compare Sylvia to another, more powerful film about a tragic literary death: "Iris," about Iris Murdoch's descent into Alzheimer's, leaves you with an aching heart and reddened eyes. After the equally sorrowful Sylvia, we are entertained but unmoved.

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
It's a coy, cautious film about a frank, fearless writer.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Broadly speaking, the popular literary biopic is a hopeless subgenre, but this account of the relationship between Sylvia Plath and husband and fellow poet Ted Hughes manages to test the rule thanks to its unusual seriousness and first-rate performances.

42
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The film, bleeding its central character of all shades but black and darkest gray, fails as both biographical chronicle and filmed narrative.

40
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Sylvia also makes it seem as though, even at her happiest, she never received much pleasure from life. This makes for a long, slow procession to the oven door - so dark, somber, and lifeless is this well-intentioned biography.

40
Newsweek
David Ansen
The film's claustrophobic, color-coordinated dourness yields little illumination, and as the surging violins accompany our heroine's un-raveling mind, the movie comes queasily close to romanticizing suicide. I knew I was supposed to feel something, but what?

40
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
This feature glimpse into the Bell Jar is an exercise in drudgery, with nothing particularly insightful or revealing to say about the charter member of the Suicidal Poets Society and the artistic endeavor in which she would make her indelible mark.

40
Film Threat
Phil Hall
A mediocre film that presents the troubled poet Sylvia Plath as a jealous, possessive and irritating woman. It is hard to recall another biopic which is so unflattering to its subject.

38
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Never persuasively dramatize the agony, ecstasy and intricacy of composing poetry. Without that aesthetic component, all you see is that Plath's hunger for life couldn't compete with her death wish.

30
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Sylvia plays it safe, and in doing so it becomes little more than just another domestic melodrama devoid of life and, of all things, poetry.

30
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Seems to avoid any kind of edgy, precedent-making attitude, some point of view that feels charged, divisive and consequently alive.


The average user rating for this movie is 4.8 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes
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