REVIEW: Possession (2009)

96. Possession

Possession tells the story of Jess and Ryan, a married couple who are saddled with Ryan's brother Roman. Roman has just gotten out of prison and is on probation. He's got nowhere else to stay so he lives with Jess and Ryan. One day, a big blow out occurs and Roman leaves. Ryan goes after him and winds up getting into an auto accident with him. Both men are seriously injured and rendered comatose. After weeks, Roman comes out of it. Only Roman is claiming to be Ryan.

This movie was filmed in 2007 and originally set for release in early 2008. Instead, the release date kept getting pushed further and further back before eventually coming out DTV in March of 2010. While the distributing company's bankruptcy kept it on the shelf, the fact is, it's just not a very good movie and probably should have stayed shelved.

First of all, this is a remake of a 2002 foreign flick called Jungdok. I didn't know that going into this one but I had a feeling midway through. Upon checking IMDB, it was confirmed for me. Everything I saw regarding this movie led me to believe that it was some sort of supernatural thriller or even a horror flick. Nope, not even close. There is nothing remotely supernatural in the works here at all. Nor is there anything horrific. Instead, it's a pretty slow moving drama with some thriller overtures near the end. The original working title here was Addicted. Personally, I feel like that works a lot better than Possession did. They should have gone that route. While watching this, I was intrigued by it, trying to figure out what was causing Ryan to be inhabiting Roman's body. I was completely underwhelmed and letdown when the movie finally got to its climax. From what I understand, there's an alternate ending floating around that makes much more sense and doesn't feel like a thrown together re-shoot like this one does. I might have to track that one down.

Sarah Michelle Gellar stars here as Jess. She does a pretty good job working with what she's given. I've always liked her so seeing her was pretty much the only highlight for me. Lee Pace, Michael Landes and Tuva Novotny round out the cast with Pace turning in a good performance as Roman. The story is interesting enough as the movie runs but once it gets near the end, it turns into standard thriller fare and suffers for doing so, ultimately taking me right out of the whole thing.

Overall, Possession is really not very good. It's safe to skip this mofo.