JonathanDWestbay
After seeing this, I am no longer a TS Eliot fan. He knew the lady's nature, yet demonized her. Turned to religion, yet Dishonored the sanctity of marriage. Let a bit of blood stand between their love. Great poet, lousy man.
praesagitio
Spoiler Alert! This is a film that improves with subsequent viewings. It represents only a small, limited portion of Eliot's personal and artistic life, as other posters have said, but the performances make the movie worth it. All of the performances are well done, but Miranda Richardson is extraordinary as a woman who sometimes struggles to keep herself under control and often loses.The film seems muddled in its presentation of Viv, however. The script has all of the usual mentally-ill-person-as-victim-of-society rhetoric--she's brilliant, a creative free spirit, etc.--and it puts in Mrs. Haigh-Wood's mouth a long speech to Eliot implying her disappointment that he isn't taking care of Viv despite her faults. At the end, the audience is indeed dismayed by her treatment. (And would it have killed Maurice to pick up a pen and write during those long years of her confinement?) But Richardson has been so convincing in her portrayal of an unpredictable force that cannot be controlled, even by herself, that there's a genuine sense of menace. Viv does threaten violence to others as well as to herself, after all, and her breezy dismissal of it as "well, we're alive--no harm done" doesn't help. Although the scene of her being remanded to the institution is sad, there's also a palpable sigh of relief.In short, lots of convincing, no-easy-answers suffering all round.
mikel weisser
i had to start this movie like four times before i could stand its horrifyingly realistic portrayal of spousal poetic betrayal enough to watch it to the end. miranda richardson is staggeringly effective in portraying a xianthippe-ish thorn in t. s. eliot's side.
monabe
Anyone who has been captivated by the poetry of this great poet, and wondered about the man and the context in which such memorable verse was written, will want to see this film. It shows T S Eliot as a tormented man who is forced to make decisions about how to deal with the mental instability/illness of his wife. The performances are uniformly faultless, and the awful tragedy of mental illness in a marriage is chillingly depicted with deep sensitivity. The film challenges the viewer to judge Eliot as a man - Dafoe's performance brilliantly portrays the anguish of Eliot the man living in what apparently was an impossible marriage, and Eliot the public figure . The film also throws light on Eliot's fascination with the Church and the role it played in providing a still place in a world of personal mental turmoil. Highly recommended.
AD
