Nancy Nicholson, portrayed by Laura Haddock, and her husband Robert Graves (Tom Hughes) hold differing views on birth control; Nancy supports it, while her mother-in-law insists that “Birth control is nothing more than an incitement to promiscuity.” Her assessment seems rather accurate when observing *The Laureate*. The film appears more preoccupied with the various romantic possibilities involving Robert, Nancy, Laura Riding (Dianna Agron), and Geoffrey Phibbs (Fra Fee) than it does with depicting their actual lives or literary achievements. Robert invites Laura, an American poet, critic, novelist, essayist, and short story writer, to reside at his country home—the only genuinely enjoyable aspect of the movie—which he shares with Nancy and their daughter, Catherine (Indica Watson). The stated reason for her visit is “Laura will serve as Catherine’s tutor and also collaborate with [Robert] on [his] next book,” and Laura herself claims, “I’ll make sure to spend time with both of them equally.” However, she dedicates a significant amount of time to Robert, though not in the manner of collaborating on his writing; concerning Catherine, her ‘tutoring’ extends to nearly persuading the girl to take her own life by throwing her out a window. I am not exaggerating. We rarely hear any of Graves's poetry without wondering where it originated—did it simply materialize or something? Consider this: Robert hears a nightingale singing outside its usual season (“They usually stop at the end of June”), and concludes that “if a nightingale can sing in a cold autumn morning, with as much passion and sweetness as it does on a May night, then there is still hope for me.” Is he supposed to have come up with such elaborate imagery spontaneously from listening to a random bird? I acknowledge the existence of inspiration (though not divine), but the filmmakers seem to forget that it requires effort. The movie doesn’t attempt to explore Graves's creative process; therefore, when Laura tells him “your writing is getting stronger, clearer,” her statement lacks any real meaning because we have no basis for comparison. Stronger and clearer than what? For that matter, how exactly is his writing "getting stronger, clearer"? What prompted this newfound strength and clarity? According to Robert, “I owe everything to Laura;” a rather ambiguous declaration from someone who had so much to say about an unremarkable nightingale. What does he mean by "everything"? Despite Laura’s primary focus on seducing both Robert and Nancy individually, she and Robert somehow manage to write and release a book. It's possible they employed a ghostwriter. Meanwhile, the film shows practically no interest in Graves’s work as a translator—a regrettable oversight considering “his versions of Lives of the Twelve Caesars and The Golden Ass remain popular for their clarity and entertaining style.” What a strange coincidence that neither of those qualities can be found anywhere in *The Laureate*.

Source on TMDB