Possessor follows an agent who works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies – ultimately driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients.
Chuck says:
Continuing the cinematic legacy of his father David, writer/director Brandon Cronenberg’s “Possessor” looks at the draining of our humanity thanks to the proliferation of technology. Taking a page from his father’s “Videodrome” and “eXistenZ,” as well as Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” and the fiction of Philip K. Dick, the film is a modern nightmare in which one woman’s psyche is threatened due to her participation in an immersive identity hijacking program. It’s heady, challenging stuff and while all of the aforementioned influences are obvious, Cronenberg manages to put his own stamp on this film, creating a gripping thriller that deftly shifts from existential crisis to graphic horror before revealing the insidious endgame that’s at play.
The film begins in bracing manner as we see a brutal assassination carried out, the victim repeatedly stabbed at a social gathering, witnesses fleeing at the sight before authorities appear to gun down the assailant. And while this would seem to put an end to the matter, there’s much more afoot. Seems the killer was actually being controlled by Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough), an assassin for hire with a clandestine organization that has the technology to insert her consciousness into another person, who she then controls. Run by Girder (Jennifer Jason Leigh), she is little concerned with the fact that her best employee is complaining of memory loss, is having trouble disengaging with her host and is feeling alienated from her husband and son (Rossif Sutherland and Gage Graham-Arbuthnot).
Using far more shadow than light throughout, Cronenberg underscores visually how Vos identity is slowly being erased with each assignment she takes. This become more pronounced when she accepts her next mission, being inserted into Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott), a patsy being used to kill his fiancé’s (Tuppence Middleton) father, a callous industrialist (Sean Bean). Comprising the bulk of the film, Abbott gives a fierce performance, conveying Vos’s confusion while in Tate’s body as she tries to navigate through his life which she knows far too little about. The actor is required at times to play both characters at once and ultimately breaks your heart when Abbott, now controlled by Vos, winds up going to her home in an effort to see her son.
While there are few surprises along the way, Cronenberg immerses us in this world with subtle in-camera effects, a shifting color scheme and tight editing that is at times vertiginous but effective. Across the board, the cast is effective, while the steady pacing keeps us engaged though at times nagging questions pop up. If there’s a fault in the script, it’s that Vos is a bit of cypher at the beginning and proceeds to be more of a mystery as her identity drains away. And while this is her character’s journey, seeing her as a happy, engaging, more fully aware person through flashbacks or some other narrative device would have ultimately made her story all the more effective and poignant.
The theme is obvious, having been covered numerous times before and while there’s certainly a need to shout this warning from the rooftops, Cronenberg conveys the sense that he knows he’s the messenger of a moral that will fall on deaf ears. The genie has been out of the bottle for some time where the dangers of technology are concerned, in regards to creating a sense of isolation between people, as well as psychological damage in those who abuse it. “Possessor” drives this theme home in a stark, haunting manner that should give the viewer pause regarding the evasive manner that’s part-and-parcel of modern technology, that is if it’s not too late already. 3 ½ Stars. Rated R. 103 minutes.
