Possessor

Directed by Brandon Cronenberg, Possessor unfolds in an alternate reality wherein technology can be used to inhabit another person’s body and follows a corporate assassin (Andrea Riseborough’s Tasya Vos) as she struggles with her latest assignment (in which she becomes Christopher Abbott’s Colin Tate). There’s little doubt, ultimately, that Possessor is rarely is intriguing or compelling as its admittedly promising setup might’ve indicated, as filmmaker Cronenberg, working from his own script, delivers a sluggishly-paced and pervasively self-indulgent narrative that seems determined to hold the viewer at arms length virtually from start to finish. Cronenberg’s aggressive art-house approach to the material ultimately can’t diminish the impact of several key scenes and stretches (eg Tasya’s violent confrontation with Sean Bean’s John Parse), and it’s clear, too, that Possessor benefits substantially from the top-notch efforts of a superb cast that includes Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rossif Sutherland. By the time the eye-rollingly abstract final half hour rolls around, however, Possessor has definitively cemented its place as a rather palpable misfire that does, at least, fare much, much better than Cronenberg’s interminable, unwatchable 2012 debut, Antiviral.

** out of ****