Roland Michell is an Americian trying to make it in the difficult world of British Academics. He has yet to break out from under his mentor’s shadow until he finds a pair of love letters in the textbook that once belonged to one of his idols, a famous long dead Victorian poet. Michell, after some sleuthing around, narrows down the suspects to a woman not his wife, another well known Victorian poet. Roland enlists the aid of a Dr. Maud Bailey, an expert on the life of the woman in question. Together they piece together the story of a forbidden love affair, and discover one of their own. They also find themselves in a battle to hold on to their discovery before it falls into the hands of their rival, Fergus Wolfe. —IMDb
Neil LaBute is a writer, director, and playwright. His first film, In the Company of Men, debuted at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival and won the dramatic Filmmakers Trophy. Nurse Betty (2000) screened at Cannes. LaBute has written plays that have been performed on stages around the world, including Bash: Latter Day Plays (2000), The Mercy Seat (2002), The Shape of Things (2003), and reasons to be pretty (2009), which was nominated for three Tony Awards. He is also the author of the short story collection Seconds of Pleasure. –Sundance
ok.I haven't read the book.but I don't really understand why people hate this movie.
This is an underrated film. Many people seem to hate LaBute's studio efforts, but this is a well-made, well-acted film that really digs into questions of romance and love. We get two characters that don't believe in love, who fall in love, and don't know how to react to the situation. This makes for a very interesting film to me. I would suggest that those who dismiss it give it another chance.