Literary scholars American Roland Michell of the British Museum and British Maud Bailey independently find that the socially antagonistic relationship between the Victorian era poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte may have concealed a secret connection as lovers. Ash is traditional and conservative and LaMotte is a freethinkingbisexual. Rival scholars become aware of their efforts and each seeks to be the first at the public disclosure of this major finding about the poets. In a parallel relationship, Michell and Bailey have their own deepening connection.
Three early drafts of the film's screenplay were written by American playwright David Henry Hwang in the 1990s, but the project languished in pre-production for years. Directors such as Sydney Pollack and Gillian Armstrong worked on the film and eventually gave up before LaBute became director.[2] LaBute made drastic changes to the story, based partially on notes that original author Byatt had made on earlier drafts of the screenplay, as she recognized that Roland Michell had to "exist on screen" in a different way than he did in the book.[2]
LaBute recalled:
"What she basically said was, 'This is Roland on the page; you must make him different in a film!' She got that Roland needed more drive. Just seeing those notes kind of gave me the keys to the kingdom. And so in the film, Roland keeps making these wild, imaginative leaps about the poets' lives, and Maud's both charmed and appalled."[2]
LaBute changed Roland's nationality from British to American, and made him more brash and active. He denied that this was "shameless pandering to the audience. ... in part, it was [just] more comfortable for me to write Roland that way."[2]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 63%, with an average rating of 6.30/10, based on 156 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads: "It's perhaps a bit tame and uninspiring, considering its subject matter, but Possession manages enough romance and period intrigue to satisfy most fans of its source material."[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5]
Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars and a half out of four.[6]
Daniel Zalewski of The New York Times noted that director LaBute, "known for savagely blunt stage and screen dramas ... has here infused a British novelist's main characters with the same stutter-and-slang rhythms, male-bonding repartée and sarcastic volleys that define his own distinctly American work." He said: "In the end, Mr. LaBute's grafting of his own sensibility onto Roland creates a weird tonal clash."[2]
Jamie Russell of the BBC wrote, "Lacking the intelligence of an arthouse picture, or the classy sheen of a British production, Possession isn't possessed of anything other than over-wrought emotionalism and unintentional silliness."[7]
