Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

SnoopyStyle American Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) discovers clues to a secret love affair between Victorian era poets Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam) and Christabel LaMotte (Jennifer Ehle). His boss Blackadder is an Ash expert and dismissive of his discovery. He is often dismissed for being an American in British academia. He asks for help from LaMotte expert Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) who ridicules him for not knowing that LaMotte was a lesbian. LaMotte was in a relationship with Blanche Glover (Lena Headey) while Ash was married. As Roland and Maud make further discoveries, they fall for each other.It's very weird that every character comments on Aaron Eckhart being an American and there's Gwyneth Paltrow playing a Brit. I don't know why Lena Headey isn't the lead other than Paltrow is a bigger name. This is a slightly off-centered romance following two relationships in different times. The academia is a good backdrop but there aren't enough hurdles to make the modern romance that interesting. The actors are perfectly fine but Roland and Maud don't have enough heat together.

Julesecosse I liked this film; and had no concerns whatsoever about watching it, despite the relatively low financial return, which I don't understand and also, the relatively mediocre percentage on Rotten Tomatoes, which I also don't comprehend - the latter of which I generally check before watching a movie, the former to see whether it's an indie or not.I guess that this genre is not for everyone; to me it's a Jane Austen with added intrigue or a sophisticated Dan Brown with less intrigue.There is lots of innuendo and suggestion, which unfortunately is generally bluntly explained shortly thereafter; it would possibly have been more interesting to keep it more mysterious and therefore make the viewer think longer than a few seconds.I enjoyed it overall and would recommend it to those of a literary bent, it's not a popcorn flick.

Jay Harris I missed this movie when it was first released, I finally got to see it & am glad I did.It is a romantic love story, told the old fashioned way,by people talking. Outside of some kissing & vague moments, we feel the romance & love without being subjected to needless nude sex scene.Neil LaBute directs David Henry Hwang's screenplay adaptation of A.S. Byatt's novel with care.Aaron Eckhart & Gwyneth Paltrow are researchers & find part of a love letter written 150 ago,between a 2 poets who supposedly never met Jeremy Northam & Jennifer Ehle play this couple from the past/Every scene is just beautiful, the acting by all is first rate.It did have a modest release across the USA,But regretfully did not do the business It should have.This type of film was standard movie fare years back,I think it still should be. Iprobably would have given it the same rating if it were released in 1952.Ratings: ***1/2 (out of 4) 02 points (out of 100) IMDb 9 (out of 10)

Danusha_Goska Save Send Delete This is one of those movies that belongs in a special category: Films Worth Watching for Exactly One or Two Scenes.Really, it's crazy. Other than these two scenes, the movie is mediocre, with Gwyneth Paltrow's great beauty the best thing about it.But these two scenes! It's as if they are from another movie entirely, a movie you saw as a child and never forgot, a movie that shaped your adult love life.If only the rest of the film around these two scenes were equally as good.Here are the scenes: a man and a woman, deeply in love with each other, delay kissing, for the moment is not yet ripe. They spend time together, including collecting shells along the seashore.Finally, one candle-lit night at dinner, the woman, radiating the original Earth Goddess, smiles at the man, and that smile communicates all. He knows that this is the night. He follows her to her bedroom, where she has positioned herself -- gracefully, beautifully, sensually -- in readiness for him. His hands shake...Second scene: a man meets a little girl, and in that meeting comes to understand deep heartaches of his life in a whole new way.And ... those scenes are reason enough to see this movie. Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle are superb; the costumes are gorgeous; the lighting is perfect ...And then you have the rest of the movie. Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart play two modern scholars studying the lives of the characters played by the aforementioned, excellent, Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle.Paltrow is terrific, everything the script calls for.Aaron Eckhart ... was really good in "Company of Men." Here he just isn't enough. When Paltrow kisses him, and attempts to display passion, you are certain: she'd never go for this guy. She could get someone so much better, and she will.The script makes Eckhart's character out to be something of a boy-man. Eckhart plays him with perpetually greasy hair and unshaved face. he wears the same clothes everyday. And he's something of a nothing.But Northam and Ehle, and their story ... for the ages.