SYLVIA

UK, 2003, 114 minutes, Colour.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner, Michael Gambon.
Directed by Christine Jeffs.

Over the decades, Sylvia Plath's reputation as a poet has continued to increase. Her posthumous book of poetry was edited and published by her estranged husband, Ted Hughes and her novel, The Bell Jar, became a bestseller and a film in the 1980s. This is her story.

Most audiences will know that Sylvia Plath killed herself with gas from her oven in February 1963. They will also know that her more celebrated poet husband, Ted Hughes, was blamed for her depression and death and kept silence about his relationship until a book of poems in 1998, shortly before he died of cancer. He had been Poet Laureate since 1984.

This film takes us back to Cambridge in the mid-1950s when American student, Sylvia, first met Ted, won over by his poetry and swept off his feet by his manner (after he had reviewed her poems unfavourably). It shows their courtship and marriage (despite the hesitations of Sylvia's mother) and their living in the US for three years while they both taught. Already Sylvia was affected emotionally by the women who flocked around Ted. On their return to England, they started a family but Sylvia's feeling she could not write creatively and Ted's infidelity led to her despair.

It is not so much a film where we want to know what is going to happen next. We know that. Rather, we are continually asking why it happened, trying to understand characters, the tension of personality clashes, situations of love and betrayal.

Director is New Zealander Christine Jeffs (Rain) who brings an un-Hollywood seriousness and plainness to her treatment of John Brownlow's screenplay. She re-creates the period effectively both in England and in the US so that we enter into the drama rather than merely observe it. Gwyneth Paltrow is intense as Sylvia and her interpretation of a difficult woman who makes life even more difficult remains in the memory. Daniel Craig's Ted Hughes is a rough and ready poet who exercises charm and gets entangled by it, loving Sylvia but wearied by her emotional demands and easily succumbing to relationships with other women.

The basic nature of the plot is commonplace but, when it is a look at public figures, it is intriguing and puzzling.

1. Audience familiarity with the life and death of Sylvia Plath? The work of Ted Hughes? Their relationship? Their poetry?

2. The film's focusing on Sylvia and her life and death rather than on Ted Hughes? The Sylvia perspective? The critique of Hughes as a personality, a husband?

3. The world of Cambridge in the 50s, New England, Devon? The 50s and 60s, moods, décor, costumes? Songs? The mood of the musical score?

4. Sylvia Plath's background, her German father, his death when she was young, her mother in America, a strong woman? Sylvia at nine and unhappy? The background of her suicide attempts, her descriptions of them, her mother's descriptions? The reasons for the attempts? Her love of language, her studies, her poetry? Seeing her in Cambridge on the bicycle, the student hiding the review? The review of her poem by Ted Hughes, her reading Hughes's poem? Her wanting to meet him, the dance, her approaching him? The talk, dancing - and the soundtrack going quiet, indicating the nature of the interaction, the beginnings of a relationship between them? Ted Hughes and his admirers, the women around him? Sylvia falling in love with him?

5. Getting to know each other, sharing opinions, their sexual relationship? The significance of his poetry, his acclaim, his explaining winning the prize to Sylvia? His career? Their going to the United States, their hopes for their marriage, the social and meeting Sylvia's family? Mrs Plath's reaction to Ted, the discussion with Sylvia about liking him or not, asking Sylvia whether she loved him, then Mrs Plath liking him? Claiming that she had read his poems and his question? Her reaction? The women at the party and their adulation?

6. The rowing sequence, its naturalistic style, the two of them out on the water, talking, sharing, talking about poetry, Ted helping Sylvia to see what her topic for poetry should be? Truth and love? Their marriage?

7. Their time in the United States, the summer holiday, Sylvia trying to write, her cooking? Her lecturing, the range of corrections? Her going in to listen to Ted and his lecture, reading Yeats, again, the adulation of the women? Glimpsing him with his student, the introduction, seeing her later, her running away? Ted arriving home late, Sylvia's tenseness, her inability to write? Waiting up for Ted, the confrontations? Her growing anger? His response, offhand, changing heart, wanting to love her? The effect of this on her, on him, the scenes of reconciliation?

8. Going back to the United Kingdom, the children? The change in her life, caring for the babies, at home, the cooking? His lecturing, his relationships, the women? Their time in Devon? Alone, her working on her manuscript, the corrections over the phone? Meeting Aissa and David? Their looking over the house in London, inviting them to Devon? Their arrival, Sylvia's suspicions of Ted, the meal, her making a scene, the tension, David offering to leave in the morning? Her agreeing? Her publication, waiting for the reviews, the launch and the offhand attitude of the range of reviewers, coming just for the party? The meeting with Al Alvarez, their discussions, his support of her, his insight into her poetry, his good review?

9. Ted and Aissa beginning an affair, his absences from Devon? His decision to go, Sylvia's anxiety, his not farewelling the little girl? Sylvia left alone with the children, working, the washing, cleaning, growing depression? Her beginning to write after Ted's leaving? Her intensity of writing? The visit to Al Alvarez, talking about her relationships, suggesting that he become her lover? His refusal? Her gaining in self-confidence?

10. Ted's return visit, the sexual encounter, his declaration of love for her, her seeming to be happy, the possibilities of the future, his not coming back, Aissa being pregnant?

11. The build-up to the suicide sequence, her getting everything in order, the details of her using the masking tape for the doors and windows, the gas, her death? The people coming in afterwards, finding her dead, the body being taken out? Her funeral?

12. The aftermath, the publication of Arial, Ted and his doing the work, her writing becoming popular over the decades? Women finding support in her writings?

13. The film as a love story, a love-hate story, a story of fidelity and betrayal, emotional demands, reconciliation and forgiveness - but, ultimately, to despair and death?

14. The film's perspective on poetic creativity, inspiration? The significance of the boat scene and Ted's discussing things with Sylvia? The reviews? The desire to write, the compulsion, the achievement?