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Poster for Pandaemonium

Pandaemonium

2001 · 2h 4m · PG-13 Drama
Directed by Julien Temple

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Overview

Set in England during the early 19th century, Pandaemonium evokes late-1960s America in its depiction of the relationship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Linus Roach) and William Wordsworth (John Hannah). Instead of going to Vietnam, Wordsworth goes off to fight against the French while Coleridge stays at home and promotes utopianism. After the war, the poets live and work together with Coleridge's wife, Sara (Samantha Morton), and Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy (Emily Woof). At first this communal arrangement works to the advantage of Coleridge--who does some of his best writing while Wordsworth stagnates--until Coleridge becomes addicted to opium. Wordsworth, meanwhile, doesn't find his voice until he abandons his friend. In 20th-century vernacular, Wordsworth is the yuppie, Coleridge the hippie.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
58%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Goes a long way toward capturing the compelling delirium of opium among a crowd of freethinking British iconoclasts.

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Fresh

Literate and handsome.

Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times
Rotten

Historically and dramatically dubious.

Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Rotten

A harebrained, awkward, and dramatically muddled historical pageant.

Michael Atkinson, Mr. Showbiz
Rotten

The exposition is thick, the characterization choppy, the wigs terrible.

Jessica Winter, Village Voice

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