Possession (2002) on Netflix
Roland Michell, an American scholar in London, finds love letters that may link the poet Randolph Henry Ash to Christabel LaMotte. Maud Bailey, a British expert on LaMotte, joins his search.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.3/1014,063 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes63%
Trailer
Plot summary
Maud Bailey has spent her career on the Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte, while Roland Michell, an American in London, studies Randolph Henry Ash, a poet known for the verses he wrote for his wife. A bundle of letters apparently sent to LaMotte draws the two researchers together. Ash was conservative and LaMotte was a freethinking woman, and the letters suggest a connection between the poets that neither scholar expected. Roland and Maud follow the clues across England, retracing the poets' steps, with rival academics chasing the same discovery, among them Fergus Wolfe, who wants it for himself. As they work, the distance between the two scholars narrows.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Possession (2002)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ralph Fiennes was approached to play poet Randolph Henry Ash in Possession before the role went to Jeremy Northam instead.
- Director Neil LaBute rewrote much of Possession's story after novelist A. S. Byatt sent notes on earlier screenplay drafts, telling him that her character Roland Michell needed to "exist on screen" differently than he did on the page.
- LaBute changed Roland Michell, played by Aaron Eckhart, from British in the novel to American and more brash for the film, denying it was pandering to audiences and saying it was simply easier for him to write the character that way.
