Sombras de um Desejo

This is middle-tier SMG film, but I must say, it has really grown on me over the years. It's gorgeously shot, the story is pretty twisted which keeps you guessing, and Sarah has total command over the emotion of the film. She's pretty fantastic; she's always been one of the best criers in Hollywood, and here she manages a certain emotional state consistently as Jess collects these experiences and weighs the possibilities. Lee Pace is rather good, too.

The directors have a strong sense and a compelling approach to the material that is not stylish and clicks with the audience. The script is the most flawed aspect but serves the basis for a solid thriller. It's quite impressive that they filmed an entire alternative third act. I do prefer the alternative ending to the more Hollywood-ized final version. However, the producers made the right call. American audiences wouldn't have gone along with Jess's final motivations and conclusion in the alternative ending. I find the psychology so interesting.

I wish it would have had a proper wide theatrical release. It would've made $bank$ had it been released early February or mid-April.

American remakes of South Asian films have often produced disastrous results. 'Possession' faces a similar fate. It's not as bad as most remakes of South Asian movies but as a stand alone it's not very good either. The execution is passable. There are some eye-candy photographic visuals but the background score is annoying. The forced 'jump' moments are unnecessary and out of place.

The movie hardly works as a thriller but to an extent it does work as a human drama. Jess's hope of her husband's recovery conflicted with her confusion in seeing her brother-in-law act familiar is well displayed. Sarah Michelle Gellar is brilliantly restrained. How I hope she would move out of the horror thriller genre and attempt different kinds of roles. Lee Pace's performance suffers due to poor characterization.

'Possession' is easily forgettable. Other than Michelle Gellar's performance, there isn't much to look forward to.

I haven't seen the Original Asian movie this is based on, but I am pretty sure, that I would like that more than the Remake I have seen. I'm pretty sure it is more subtle and has better character arcs. Not that the actors are bad in this, but as someone else wrote in a magazine: Seems like Sarah M. Gellars career has gone AWOL, since Buffy ended. And this movie won't bring her career back.

It's a nice little psycho thriller, that tries to stay ambiguous, but you might know where this is going, without me or anyone else telling you about it. There's still a chance you might like it more than some other people, but also a very good chance you might not like it at all. There's better thrillers out there, but you could pick a worse movie. If you are a fan of Sarah M. Gellar, you might wanna give it a try ... also if you like thriller movies in general (with a touch of supernatural thrown in for good measure). Everyone else should stay clear of this

This movie was very uneven I think I would have to see the Japanese version or read the book in order to appreciate it better or at least understand what happened at the end of it. Too much of vital details was left on the cutting room floor apparently or maybe the director expects too much of his audience. Wanting an intelligent audience is one thing but leaving so much details out to the point whereby the audience is practically left to make up their own movie is just ridiculous. It has shades of Bollywood's 'Anamika' in it. The idea behind the film was brilliant but it was executed poorly. I like Sarah Michelle Gellar but this was not one of her best work.

Based on the trailer and the tags for the movie I expected a little bit of a horror/thriller from the movie, instead I got a slow moving tense love story. The movie lacked a wow factor, while being watchable and being a remake I would have wanted more out of the second release. Acting in it was good, nothing outstanding as it only was composed of three actors for the majority and of those two that showed any depth.Regardless of what I expected though, the movie was very slow in a lot of areas and then the theatrical version (and from what I read the alternate version is much better) provides an ending that was jumbled and developed poorly for the viewer. They seemed to just toss out this ending without thought to turn it into a somewhat creepy idea of "possession" that I found to be quite bland.

Overall if you watch a lot of movies and need something to watch, check it out, its not horrendous. Otherwise, there are plenty of other flicks worth pouring an hour half into.