POSSESSION

The marriage between Jess and Ryan is perfect, everything works wonderfully and they are a fairy-tale couple. They live in a beautiful house and are even thinking about having a child. To ruin their idyllic plans is Ryan's brother, Roman, just out of prison and homeless, forced to cohabit with the two spouses. After some episodes where Roman turned out to be intrusive and inappropriate, Jess asks Ryan to find accommodation for his brother. After hearing Jess speak ill of him, Roman takes his things and leaves the house. Shortly after leaving, Roman is involved in a terrible car accident, crashing precisely with his brother and both end up in a coma. After weeks without consciousness, the first to wake up will be Roman, but convinced he is Ryan. Possession. How many films have come out with this title? For example, the surreal masterpiece "Possession" by Andrzej Żuławski, "Possession" with Shirley MacLaine or the sentimental "Possession - a romantic story" by Neil LaBute. Soon "The Possession" will also be released, a demonic horror produced by Sam Raimi. Amidst all these homonymous films, in 2009 comes out, with the innovative title "Possession", a mysterious story wrapped in a halo of romance directed by two Swedes who remake a Korean film from 2002, titled "Addicted". We are light years away from the horror genre, although we are in front of a film that has many horrors. The biggest horror that jumps out at the viewer is the screenplay that is scary. For a pseudo-horror, it should be a strong point, but in this case, it is not a compliment. The life of a perfect couple in every aspect, where there are candlelit kisses, roses secretly slipped into the beloved's bag, love letters and wedding video, is tormented by the presence of his brother, prison leftovers who live under the same roof as the splendid family. Unexpectedly, the couple's life is shaken by a terrible accident in which both the husband and the brother end up in a coma. So far, although banal, the film runs smoothly. The impossible is hoped for, that is, some unexpected twist that makes one believe that the beginning is only a prelude to something innovative. Not only does the unexpected twist not arrive, but everything develops exactly as we had imagined at the beginning, in a series of embarrassing nonsense. For example, in front of a metaphysical exchange where the spirit (or whatever it is) of the husband lives in the brother's body, the maximum astonishment that the embalmed Sarah Michelle Gellar manages to feel is some grimace, followed by an internet search, which is not really accurate (and which will give the insipid title to the film). Another stupidity is given by Roman who wakes up from the coma after weeks of unconsciousness and gets up from the bed as if he had taken a nap, without even having the slightest balance problem. These are just a couple to mention, otherwise, almost every scene of the film (risking spoilers) would have to be listed, constantly one step beyond the threshold of ridiculousness. But the painful note unfortunately still has to come and punctual like Christmas it is shown in the finale, in which the spectator still victim of naivety and the hope of seeing an improvement, in front of the development of events thinks: "It can't happen what I imagine. It would really be too banal". And yet it goes exactly like that. It goes exactly as you think it will. The only advantage of the film is the duration of one hour and seventeen minutes which, however, remains difficult to digest. Maybe the idea could have worked in a short film of a few minutes. At least the effort of watching the film until the end would have been less painful. A disaster, in every respect. And it's a shame because everything is well packaged and you can see that many people have worked hard on many details, such as photography, even spending money. Unfortunately, what was missing from the beginning was the desire to take a risk with something, not necessarily original but at least daring.