Paltrow's Plath takes pasting

A BBC film about Sylvia Plath starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the troubled American poet has been slated by critics, who called it a "two-hour misery-fest".

Sylvia, which tells the story of her life, marriage, depression and ultimately suicide in London, was described by one American film critic as a "terrible, poorly executed movie" which would attract a "firestorm of criticism".

David Ansen, Newsweek's chief cinema critic, said the question was not why Plath killed herself 40 years ago but "why anyone would want to make a movie about it".

The only good review came from the New Yorker, the literary magazine famous for contributing to Plath's chronic depression by rejecting most of her work.

However it still said the £7 million film played "slow and loose" with Plath's story, and the film's producers had rearranged segments of her life.

Paltrow, 31, told how the death of her father Bruce at 58, two days before filming began, left her unsure whether to carry on with the part. "I don't know how I got through it," she said.