How Did A Film About Sylvia Plath Starring Gwyneth Paltrow Flop So Hard?
This is what happens when you trust a man to tell a woman’s complex life story.
As a woman with a mental illness and a love for reading and writing, it’s practically a given that I’m a fan of Sylvia Plath.
When I was looking for a documentary about her life, I stumbled across the 2003 film Sylvia, which stars Gwenyth Paltrow. I felt like I found secret gold.
How have I never seen gifs from this film on Tumblr? The coquette hashtag-sad-girls would eat this movie up if they knew it existed. My excitement died down once I began watching, and I quickly realized why this film didn’t make anywhere near the impact it had the capability to.
Sylvia Plath is best known for her novel The Bell Jar, which was published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in January of 1963.
Tragically, just a month later she would commit suicide. Her husband, famous poet Ted Hughes, had been having an affair. Sylvia struggled with depression and her toxic marriage, but the news that Ted’s mistress had become pregnant was too much for her to bear.
Ted would publish a collection of Sylvia’s poetry titled Ariel two years after her death. This collection of poetry was written in…
