The problem with THE POSSESSION is that all the spooky hokum has gotten in the way of what might have been a nicely rendered family drama about the toll of divorce. Saddled with a tepid turn by its director, and a script that never quite gets its act together, its one redeeming quality is, nonetheless, not inconsiderable.
That would be Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Clyde, the father and ex-husband of the piece. Magnetic, disarming, and investing his character with a credible complexity as the nice guy who took his family for granted, he proves once again, as he did in WATCHMEN, that he is a potent force on screenwith movie star charisma and a journeyman actors chops. And it will take all those qualities to get through this low-rent version of THE EXORCIST told from the Judaic point of view.
Things start slow and stay there much of the time, loitering but not with intent, when not dashing lickety-split over plot holes and assorted inconsistencies. Overcompensating for the doldrums his divorce from Stephanie (Kyra Sedgewick) has had on younger daughter, Em (Natasha Calis), he indulges the 10-year-old by buying her a scruffy wooden box with Hebrew lettering a hidden latch at a yard sale. When the usually sweet Em begins to act out by doing things like stabbing daddy in the hand with a fork after gobbling down a plate of pancakes, it may freak out sister Hannah (Madison Davenport), and concern mom, but not even a sudden plague of moths in dads new tract home makes anything think dark forces of a supernatural nature are at work. Sure, the kid is overly attached to the box, sure she is overheard talking to it, and sure the stuff in it is grotesquely peculiar, but a demon taking over the innocent spirit of a child? No way, at least not until Clyde has an unexpected revelation and starts perusing on-line videos of exorcisms. That brings in the hip but observant Hassid (Matisyahu), and the exposition that would have been interesting an hour before.
The real tension of the tale comes from the polite but brittle relationship between Clyde and Stephanie. Sedgwick is Morgans peer when it comes to playing several layers at once and making them all resonate. The years of misunderstandings and festering resentments between decent people that have poisoned the resenter, as well as the innocent kids caught in the middle, have a bitter poignancy, particularly when they stumble across an old video from happier times that brings bittersweet feelings welling up without warning. A film focusing on that dynamic would have been noteworthy. This, alas, is a mess.
Director Ole Bornedal sets the mood in THE POSSESSION with a good play of light and shadow, but little else. There is a counter-intuitive sense of suspense undermining the competent special effects and fine performances. The only real horror here is Morgan wasting his talents.
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