After seeing this, I am no longer a TS Eliot fan. He knew the lady's nature, yet demonized her. Turned to religion, yet Dishonored the sanctity of marriage. Let a bit of blood stand between their love. Great poet, lousy man.

I love this film if only for the actors! Willem Dafoe has always been one of my favorites and his portrayal of T.S. Eliot is wonderful, but Miranda Richardson's role as Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot is phenomenal. At first you have sympathy for Eliot because you think he's married to a nut case though we're never really told what's wrong with Vivienne other than "women's problems". However, as the movie moves on and you listen to the occasional narration of Vivienne's brother Maurice, you turn your sympathy towards Vivienne. Remembering Tom Eliot is an American, it's tedious watching him turn into the perfect Englishman as he'd always wanted. I do love the period costumes, cars and decor; very beautiful scenery as well. It's a rather sad story of secrets, denial and betrayal and in the end you feel left unsatisfied because once Vivienne is committed, she never gets out. One must wonder if she didn't choose to stay by her own accord even after being seen by an American Dr. who questions her long stay at the asylum. Tom has apparently moved on and must not have had regrets because Vivienne tells her brother that "I haven't' heard from Tom in ten years". It is at this point Maurice realizes what a terrible mistake he's made and is deeply ashamed of his decision to go along with Tom in having his own sister committed; a woman who was obviously very intelligent. Vivienne is quite an interesting character that leaves you wondering what she'll do next whereas Tom is most predictable. I do recommend this film.

**SPOILER(S) ALERT!** I'm surprised that none of the comments seem to mention (unless I missed it) Eliot's awful behavior portrayed in the film. Not only does Viv apparently directly inspire some of the most famous lines (so much for the transcendent method) and indeed contribute through her own hard work and editorial efforts to his most successful poetry, when she is finally put away using an obviously archaic test for sanity practically no one could pass (a mathematical conundrum) that has nothing to do with modern notions of professional psychology, but after she is put away she is indeed truly "put away" as far as Eliot is concerned. He never came to visit her in the sanitarium - not once, nor did she hear from him. At least that's how the movie portrays him. What I wonder is how accurate it all is. Eliot here is portrayed not just as a suffering husband, but one who suffers through his affection for the social position his wife gives him, and then when she clearly becomes a social handicap she is put away and forgotten. A clear injustice given the final more professional, scientific modern diagnosis that her problems all along were hormonal - not psychological.

Anyone who has been captivated by the poetry of this great poet, and wondered about the man and the context in which such memorable verse was written, will want to see this film. It shows T S Eliot as a tormented man who is forced to make decisions about how to deal with the mental instability/illness of his wife. The performances are uniformly faultless, and the awful tragedy of mental illness in a marriage is chillingly depicted with deep sensitivity. The film challenges the viewer to judge Eliot as a man - Dafoe's performance brilliantly portrays the anguish of Eliot the man living in what apparently was an impossible marriage, and Eliot the public figure . The film also throws light on Eliot's fascination with the Church and the role it played in providing a still place in a world of personal mental turmoil. Highly recommended.