Possession (2009)

Pretty Good

Load of rubbish!!

Just perfect...

i must have seen a different film!!

Joe Bergvall and Simon Sandqvist. These 2 people are Oscar nominated directors for their short film Victor and made one of my favourite movies with Den Osynlige. I haven't seen Victor (yet) but this is the only other film of theirs that I know I can see.The plot of this movie is that Ryan and Roman are brothers. Ryan seems to have everything a wife named Jess (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who loves him dearly and aside from kids their lives could not be more perfect. Roman on the other hand is a self-loathing jailbird with a "girlfriend" in the loosest possible term named Casey (Tuva Novotny). One day they both are in a car crash on a foggy day. Once Roman wakes up he has delusions that he is Ryan and has his memories. Is this a trick that Roman is pulling up his sleeve? or did their bodies really get swapped somehow?The biggest problem with this movie is that Jess seems to believe that Roman is Ryan pretty quickly. To her, her husband being in her brother-in-law's body (or so she thinks) doesn't even seem like a big problem once they form a relationship. It is actually pretty awkward to watch when you look at some of those scenes.The concept for this movie is actually pretty good. I know it is a remake of a South Korean film called "Addicted" and from what I have heard it does explore the topic a little better so i am going to watch that. What they did here was actually good but I feel with the concept it could have been more.Now onto other technical aspects. The acting is actually well done. I wanted to see Tuva Novotny in other things and she doesn't really show her acting ability (if you really want to see her play someone troubled - look at Den Osynlige, it might be hard to find but it's worth it) but you can't have everything, Sarah Michalle Gellar does a good job even if the writing is very sketchy in terms of pacing and Lee Pace does do a good job at basically being a scumbag one minute and the next being a man trying to convince his brother's wife that he is her husband.So is this worth a look? In my eyes it is. I mean yes, there are problems like why she didn't suspect the twist to happen (it actually wasn't that hard to work out) and that she believes Roman is Ryan almost with the drop of a hat but this movie does get you questioning a bit and the concept is actually pretty good. So if you like this sort of thing then I would recommend it.

I may review this report after watching the film a second time. this time around, I was most disappointed, expecting from the DVD sleeve promotion and the very title of the film, a demonic horror thriller. No such thing.Another love triangle involving a young woman and two brothers, this is a soppy sentimental love story but I can see where people are coming from in thinking the husband Ryan has possessed the soul of his brother as a result of the accident. they could have fed off the recent film 'Brothers' which had a war topic to the story and although not great, delivered the goods. this film doesn't.There is no real drama or horror in this movie and the ending is macabre to say the least. The acting is below standard even from the leading lady and the script is poor, the story told with so slow a pace it was excruciating.Checking IMDb, there are quite a few films by the same title and it was difficult at first to identify the correct film on which to post the review.There have been some very sensible and to the point comments by previous commentators about this movie. it remains to be seen whether I revise this review after a second viewing.

I have watched both versions of the film, and after eagerly anticipating it for more than a year, I can say that the alternate version is what I had expected/hoped for and completely changes the entire film. This film is by no means perfect, and certainly isn't the best written piece of cinema out there, but the story had me wrapped up and interested. The alternate ending made me love it.If you go into this film under the misapprehension of the marketing - which is, that this film is another "Grudge" or whatever the company tried to push - then you may be disappointed; it is less supernatural and altogether more human.

If this movie had a better ending and a different title, I would have given it 9 stars. The actors were superb! The story was excellent! The directors were terrible. This is not a horror movie. It was a love story with a supernatural twist, a Hitchcock style mystery with a powerful, exciting climax and then... CRASH! No Ending! We were left hanging.It was "almost" a great movie, but the directors missed the mark with the ending and the title. The title was completely wrong for this movie. Possession is a name for a horror movie. Apparently, these directors do not understand that a "Possession" is perceived as an act of violence by a malevolent entity. It is an overpowering by something evil. This storyline wasn't a possession, it was more of a "rebirth," "transference," "joining" or "awakening" that the movie was trying to imply with the switch. It was centered on the spirit of a loving spouse reaching out to his wife through his brother. Possession implies malevolence... which is why the audience felt deceived by the directors. When you mislead the expectations of an audience, you are going to get bad reviews and ratings.The DVD cover was as misleading as the title. The photo on the DVD cover looks like it belongs with a completely different movie and bore no semblance to this film. To make the problem worse, there are already a half dozen other movies with the same name "Possession." This movie should have been called something like "Reflection," "Inner Spirit," "Echo," "Transference," "Rebirth" or "(a rose) by any other name"... (you get the idea). There are dozens of better titles they could have used. This title will also work against the DVD sales and rental revenues. Most people will assume they've already seen it by the name without double-checking like I did. It was hard enough just finding the right entry on IMDb.The directors' filming styles did not fit the movie. They used choppy flashes of horrific images and sudden loud banging noises to instill fear in the audience like you would with a horror movie or thriller. That might be OK with a movie like "The Ring" or "Darkness" but it was out of place on this film... especially on the opening credits. It gave the audience the perception that the movie would be nonstop killings and violence. This movie had 2 terrible directors who took an excellent story, good screenplay and superbly talented actors and treated it like 2 high school kids pretending to be directors in their garage. If not for the directors, this could have been a fantastic 9 star movie.It really was a good movie throughout until the last scene when we were left dangling with no ending. Leaving a movie hanging, is a very bad way to leave a movie or treat an audience. Very poor judgment on the directors' parts. For this kind of a movie, a happy ending would have been nice... but this movie literally had no ending at all.The movie also did not close out the issue of the missing girlfriend. Yes, there was a memory flash of what he had done, but that was not a closure... (the alternate scene didn't count), but someone needed to find her. Apparently, these directors have a problem with "closures" and endings in his movies. Something to be wary of on their future endeavors. I don't think they should be directing this genre of movie. They don't quite know how all the pieces should fit together. They obviously do not understand US audiences or how to properly direct a film.. They turned a winning movie into a dud.I had been hoping for some redeeming alternate scenes after the directors left us hanging without any ending... but I was not pleased with any of the alternate scenes at all. They would not have added any enhancement to the movie and would have ruined the movie if they had used them. The alternate scenes created an irreversible finality situation... leading up to an alternate ending which was even worse than the regular ending. The directors couldn't even get the alternate ending right. They are apparently clueless as to how to appropriately end this kind of movie.A love story like this should have had an ending with a glimmer of positive hope... more of a glimmer than the one they left us with. This movie genre is more in the category of the film "Ghost". (Just for the directors' info, the patient bursting awake and then returning to deep coma is contradictory and unlikely). If they had wanted to end the movie properly, Ryan would have stayed awake after that last episode. The wife would have had a miscarriage, but the doctor should have wheeled her into Ryan's room where his eyes were open and they exchange meaningful, loving expressions and touch hands where we would know everything was going to be all right. That's how you end a movie like this. I'd recut, retitle & re-release this movie. Shame on the directors for spoiling what could have been a really great movie.I still recommend watching it. It is a good movie and good story, as long as you understand the disappointment waiting for you with the "lack of ending" and you understand this movie is nothing like the title implies.