Possession

Two literary scholars, Maud Bailey and Roland Michell, are working on the Victorian era from different angles: she specializes in the poet Christabel La Motte, while he studies Randolph Henry Ash, a celebrated writer of the same period. A chance discovery of draft love letters suggests a hidden connection between the two poets, which neither scholar had suspected. Maud and Roland join forces and trace the evidence across England, retracing the paths the writers once took. As they piece together the secret affair, their own relationship begins to echo the one they are investigating.

Neil LaBute directed the film, his second feature after Nurse Betty and the film that sits between it and The Shape of Things in his filmography. Laura Jones and LaBute wrote the screenplay, and Paula Weinstein and Barry Levinson produced. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Maud and Aaron Eckhart plays Roland, with Jeremy Northam as Ash, Jennifer Ehle as La Motte, Lena Headey as Blanche Glover and Holly Aird as Ellen Ash.

Released in August 2002, the film runs 102 minutes and is a British-American production. Against a budget of 25 million dollars, it took in about 10 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 6.3 from 156 reviews, while on TMDB it has a rating of 6 out of 10 from 197 votes.