Sombras de um Desejo

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.

Sorry, Sarah, but, since your 'Buffy days,' your film career has hardly been glittering. What we have here is a short - and pretty empty - horror/thriller. If you believe the marketing on the poster, the people who made it have something to do with both The Grudge and The Ring. I can assure you... it's not even nearly as good as either of them.

In my opinion, it has two major problems: the first is that it's rushed. It's only eighty minutes long and everything has to happen really quickly to fit it all in. Buffy is now married to 'nice brother,' but 'nasty brother' is generally hanging around with them. Then, one fateful day, nice brother and nasty brother accidentally crash their cars into each other (yeah, seriously), leaving them both fighting for life side by side in their hospital beds.

Then, nasty brother wakes up, only he claims to be nice brother. And now we have our film. Only we don't. Seeing as it's nice brother in nasty brother, he behaves very well and doesn't do anything nasty. So... who's really in there? Nice brother, or nasty brother? Um, do we care? He's nice, so there's absolutely no real sense of danger or dramatic tension (my second fault with the film).

If you're a Buffy/Sarah fan like me, you'll probably agree that she's the best bit. She does her best, but the script is lame and she could do with either having to fight someone, or be chased by something (ala The Grudge).

Sadly, Possession offers nothing you haven't seen before, only better. Stick to the Grudge or the Ring. Like I say... sorry, Sarah.

http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

This film is about a woman whose husband and her brother in law were injured in a serious car crash. After her brother in law regains consciousness, he believes that he is his brother.

"Possession" has an interesting plot which keeps you interested and guessing throughout. The mystery is preserved to the very end. Though the acting is not outstanding, the plot makes up for it. The ending is a little weird, as there are scenes which seems to contradict the ending that is suggested.

If the ending is clearer and more focused, then "Possession" would have been even better.

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.