When The Possession Loses Steam Who Can Viewers Call?

*spoiler alert.

Director: Ole Bornedal.

Writers: Juliet Snowden, and Stiles White.

Cast: Natasha Calis, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick

When a young girl asks her father for one big toy in the movie, The Possession, maybe the parental unit should think twice. Those cute adorable eyes can twist even the most hardened souls around. Well sometimes. In the case of Clyde Brenek (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a campus basketball coach, maybe the girls he has to take care of will change his lost dog demeanor around. There are times he's too scruffed up for his own good, and that's not because of the team he has to get trained. It is because of the two girls he gets custody of every weekend.

This focus about learning how to care for the ones you love is at the core of this film than its supernatural underpinnings. As a family drama, the product is respectable. As a supernatural thriller, the film does not quite deliver. Despite the best intentions created by director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch, Deliver Us from Evil), this movie is all too familiar, like it took a few ideas from Exorcismus and gave it its own tin foil wrapper.

If this director contributed more to the writing, then just maybe the tale could have stuck out more.

When the drama of an old lady getting assaulted by an invisible force creates the momentum for the film, the perch it is resting on should not fall down. The bird’s eye view of this world does spin and while it nicely suggests a greater force watching all that is about to transpire, where the supernatural elements head is mostly elsewhere.

Clyde has a chance to work in the big leagues and this subplot does not get the extra oomph it needs to convey how divided his loyalties are. Is it to repair his broken up family or is it to move away to a big city? While he is quick to try and please his daughters with gifts, the mother is not helping by taking on a new 'boyfriend.'

Hannah (Madison Davenport), the older sister, has to be the true matriarch, but this idea is never explored. She barely looks out for Emily (Natasha Calis) and seems to spend most of her time in her room. The Brenek family has to struggle on their own and the antique storage box Emily gets father to buy becomes her new best friend.

Most of the movie is spent showing how Em succumbs to its influence, and fortunately there is no Lemarchand's combination on the box for her to figure out. All she finds are mysterious items, like a ring and strange metallic containers, that does not get anyone asking who this box onced belonged to until it is too late. And when the chest opens by its own accord, the moths and strangeness that happen in the days to come does not raise the attention of anyone but the audience. And for long time viewers of this subgenre of film, many told-you-so moments are to be expected.

Even though parts of the movie are nicely developed for tension, the distractions are simply annoying. The most irritating bit is the background music. Cello music has been done to death, and when a familiar rhythm gets used to remind viewers not to swim in the beach, the setup is all too obvious. Sadly all this awareness is prevalent throughout and that does not help this movie rise beyond its similarly produced cousins.

This film is at least different by making a Jewish connection and transitioning musician Tzadok (Matisyahu) to becoming an actor. He is very enjoyable to watch and plays up the role much like how Kevin Connor might, when taken seriously. To have a non-Christian element is very pleasing for a genre that rarely looks at how other cultures treat demonic possession. Even though some goofs have been made at how a Jewish exorcism is performed, like the number of people involved (it really should be ten) and if English should be uttered, can it be forgiven? What would the Jewish community say?

Even the real life dybbuk box that made headlines has changed. It was a large wine cabinet but now its an oversized jewelry box. All these redesigns were done all in favour for creative license and while that's fine, some viewers are expecting hell to be raised when Eve's Box (not Pandora) is opened. But what is unintentionally funny is in how Clyde seems to think he can exorcise the demon away by simply watching videos from Youtube.

More could have been done to connect with the man who found his mother dead during the introduction, or to have that man realize what he has sold, and have him find the Brenek family. To watch two plots colliding can make for a far better tale, and be more truer to The Exorcist experience.

At least the talent of Canadian actor Jay Brazeau (Watchman) did not go to waste. For audiences in the know, both he and Morgan appeared in CW’s "Supernatural." Brazeau played two different roles in this TV series, and Morgan was John Winchester, the patriarch of this line of Hunters. In The Possession, some audiences may have to wonder if Morgan ever joked with the writing team about inserting a moment showing him teaching the girls how to fend off the supernatural. That alone would have been priceless than watching two girls trying to survive a family divorce.

Oveall: 4.5 out of 10.

To learn about the real life dybbuk box:

The Dybbuk Box at the LA Times

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Posted in: 2012,2012 release,exorcism,movie poster,movie review,possession,spirituality