POSSESSION
Released: August 16, 2002
Neil LaBute has directed a few of my recent favorite movies including the bitter anti-woman story "In The Company Of Men" (where the men get a lesson they'll never forget from the women they torment) and "Nurse Betty" which stars Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock. Like these two movies and most other LaBute films, "Possession" stars longtime collaborator Aaron Eckhart who recently starred (and shined brightly too) in Sean Penn's "The Pledge" and "Erin Brockovich" as Julia Roberts' biker boyfriend. Joining Eckhart is Gwyneth Paltrow. The two play a pair of literary sleuths who unearth the amorous secret of two Victorian poets only to find themselves falling under a passionate spell. Sounds hardly like a LaBute movie, right? It does share a lot of source material's author - A.S. Byatt's 1990 Booker Prize-winning novel but LaBute has co-wriiten the screenplay and stamped it with his unique style. Sure, it's a love story, a chick film, but it's LaBute's ability to add in a more realistic feeling of uncertainty and the power of one's imagination to fuel their passions - which he tends to explore in all his films. Both Eckhart and Paltrow are great as are the support cast. If you're willing to be openminded and allow to story to envelop you then you'll enjoy "Possession". The British countryside scenery looks amazing and LaBute's flashback structure designed to move between the current investigation and the long-ago relationship the modern pair are embarking on almost serves as two movies in one. If you're a LaBute fan, definitely go see this.
102 Minutes
Focus Features/Warner Bros./USA Films