Sylvia
Focus Features | Release Date: October 17, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
21
Negative:
3
Watch Now
Buy on

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
This is the richest role Paltrow has had since ''Shakespeare in Love,'' and she rises to the challenge. She digs deep into Plath's mercurial nature, giving us a Sylvia who's fiercely independent and alive yet burdened with demons of insecurity that bubble up in a rage. Read full review
90
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Christine Jeffs has directed it with discretion and intimacy, almost a paradoxical privacy. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyRon Stringer
The excellent cast is headed by Gwyneth Paltrow in the mood-shifting title role and Daniel Craig as the helpless, not-so-happily philandering Hughes. Read full review
80
EmpireJune Howdel
Though the sketchy narrative could do with a bit of filling out, and the settings could be less gloomy, this is a memorable interpretation that benefits enormously from sound casting decisions. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Christine Jeffs's film is an emotionally rich biography of the poet Sylvia Plath, who is played with radiant conviction by Gwyneth Paltrow. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
As a film it's mostly top-notch work. Kiwi director Christine Jeffs has taken the poignant, thoughtful screenplay of erstwhile documentarian John Brownlow and rendered it a moving mood-piece of subtlety and ever-encroaching sorrow. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
For those who have read the poets and are curious about their lives, Sylvia provides illustrations for the biographies we carry in our minds. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Sylvia the movie competently shows us how; but, as always, it's Sylvia the writer who brilliantly tells us why -- then, now and tomorrow, her foreboding words are her finest legacy. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
At heart, Sylvia is constructed as a psychological suspense film framed around the ambiguities of Hughes's infidelity and Plath's resulting paranoia. So at its strangest, the movie is a potboiler. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Paltrow's performance in Sylvia doesn't have Oscar- worthy depth, but it's a solid, sincere portrayal that captures enough sides of Plath's complex personality to enrich the movie, directed with impressive visual power by New Zealand filmmaker Christine Jeffs. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
What Jeffs -- and Paltrow -- do capture is the shroud of tragedy that hovered over Plath. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Despite an exceptional performance by Paltrow, whose Plath is a layer cake of infinite intelligence and bottomless need, Jeffs' film is an icy affair lacking the fever of Plath's and Hughes' poems. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
You can also see Sylvia without realizing she could be witty and bemused, qualities apparent in her posthumously published novel, "The Bell Jar." This book, which spoke to sensitive girls of the 1960s like few others, is mentioned once in passing in the film. We never see her writing it or learn what it means to her. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Doesn't shed much light on the fragile and enigmatic writer whose myth has nearly obscured the real woman. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Paltrow does this role exceptionally well, but it is underwritten. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Sylvia underwhelms. Read full review
More From This Movie

56 Critic Reviews

6.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL