Gwyneth Paltrow can get by with a performance of a feminist scholar, like she did in last year's \Possession."" However, pulling off the role of an emotionally unstable poet is just a bit beyond her, as her performance as Sylvia Plath in ""Sylvia"" demonstrates.
The movie follows Sylvia Plath through her courtship, marriage and abandonment by Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig). The two intersect at a dance in Cambridge, England in 1956 and fall in love almost instantaneously. When they leave, Plath leans toward Hughes and takes a gouge from his cheek, drawing his blood and her laughter.
Plath and Hughes partake in an uncommon romance, with poetry contests in dank apartments in Cambridge and quotes of The Wife of Bath from ""The Canterbury Tales"" delivered to cows on a river bank. As the two pull each other closer, it becomes painfully obvious that the disparity of Hughes' early success and Plath's goals are slightly out of sync. The accomplished man is guiding his young woman instead of standing as her equal.
By the time they reach Boston in 1960, the two are sharing domestic feuds and mutual anger instead of medieval poetry. They settle down with a family and try to make it through the rigors of child-rearing and writer's block. Beyond those troubles are Plath's emotional instability and memories of her suicide attempts that finally push Hughes to infidelity. Back in London later in the year, the two are finally pulled apart by Hughes stubbornness and Plath's depression.
While Paltrow is convincing as a schoolgirl in Cambridge, she does not handle the shift to her role of wife with the same ease. In a seaside vacation, she and Craig make great lovers as they are embracing on the beach, but Paltrow loses the role when she is making muffins a few seconds later. In the effort to show Plath's momentary lack of creativity, Paltrow loses the subtlety of the scene. She is not as domestic as as she could be.
But that is not the end of Paltrow's problems in the movie. In another scene, she and Craig look over reviews of Plath's ""The Colossus."" Though she conveys disappointment well, she is less precise than the words of the book. The expectations forged by Plath's work fail when Paltrow puts them to the screen. Somewhere the words are lost in Paltrow's frequent tears and frayed feelings.
Meanwhile, Craig backs up Paltrow with a solid performance that shows just how unfeeling Hughes could be. While his wife goes through episodes of suspicion and confusion, he runs off to other women. Craig never carries the overwrought emotion that Paltrow does and the film benefits from it. Where Paltrow brings too much darkness, Craig balances it out with just enough restraint.
The union of the two pushes everything else aside. With little exposition, Plath and Hughes are only revealed alongside each other. ""Sylvia"" could have used even five more minutes of either character on their own.
With the strong-willed leads, the imagery falls into the background of the film. This is unfortunate because ""Sylvia"" could have been much more rich visually had director Christine Jeffs (""Rain"") allowed for a little more symbolism to show through. Plath's red bicycle, red lips and red blanket provide the little striking imagery that ""Sylvia"" exhibits. Considering that the last item covers her body after her suicide, the use of it is somewhat muted.
The film has its successes in the early courtship between Plath and Hughes, but could have let those early scenes last a little longer. That way, the tragic beauty of Plath's ""Ariel"" could redeem her life a bit more instead of getting lost in Paltrow's lack of poetic subtlety.
