Two modern literary academics investigate the lost love of two 19th century Victorian poets. Soon the two investigators find themselves falling in love at the same time that they are attempting to find out what happened during the 19th century romance. Possession stars Aaron Eckheart and Gwyneth Paltrow and is directed by Neil LaBute.
This romantic mystery is full of a haunting atmosphere that permeates throughout the entire running time and benefits the production greatly. The film also benefits from LaBute's stylish filmmaking. The film is mostly well shot and features some inventive camera tricks to liven up the proceedings too. LaBute takes full advantage of the stunning backdrops of England and France where the film was shot. Thankfully though, LaBute doesn't overdo the camera tricks and overshadow his stars by himself. He lets his actors be the film so to speak. The film also luckily gets solid and underplayed performances by Paltrow and Eckheart. Paltrow embodies her character's stuffy artsy personality with skill and aplomb. Eckheart fascinates as Paltrow's lover and fellow academia. In the parallel storyline involving the 19th century lovers Jeremy Northam is wonderful as he is able to embody the poet's somewhat mixed-up thinking skillfully. As Northham's lover Jennifer Ehle hits the right notes to make her character believable for the time period. Ehle and Northham have good chemistry together, which also helps greatly in making their portion of the film more fun to watch.
Unfortunately, not all is rosy in Possession. One of the problems with the film is that its pacing is a bit erratic. During the middle part of the film the investigation by the two scholars drags a little bit as they struggle to discover more about the past. By far the biggest problem that I found with the film is that it's an R-rated film masquerading as a PG-13 film. During the numerous love scenes the aforementioned camera tricks are put into full force as LaBute uses various filters and unfocused filmmaking so that you can't see too much graphic material. These techniques were obviously only used to make sure that younger fans of Paltrow and romance films can get in without any trouble and therefore hopefully generate a bigger box office take.
Overall though, Possession is a solidly performed double-layered mystery that also acts as a romance and a ably produced period film complete with costumes accurate for the 19th century.
Rating: 87
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