MovieChat Forums > Possession (2009) Discussion > Ending....(SPOILERS)

Ending....(SPOILERS)

posted 14 years ago by ttandb
11 replies | jump to latest

I *really* liked this movie. Lee Pace and Sarah Michelle Geller had great chemistry. I wasn't too sure going into this movie if Pace would pull off the 'bad guy', but he did. However he also made him sympathetic for the most part; you felt sorry for him that people judged him and didn't really care about him for himself, hence the reason he wanted to be 'someone else'.

SPOILERS AHEAD........SPOILERS AHEAD........SPOILERS AHEAD........SPOILERS AHEAD........

However I do wish they had left the ending alone; 'Addicted' (the original Korean version of this film) had Jesse (Geller's character) stay with Roman (Pace's character). Mainly because she had fallen in love with him and had guessed his secret that he *wasn't* her husband, but she cared for him none the less.

I think this ending would've worked so much better for this version too; Roman was obviously madly in love with Jesse, and he also knew she was pregnant with his baby - I really do not believe, violent past or not, that he would try to kill her. I also think there was sexual tension on Jesse's part with Roman from the get go, which is why she was always so uncomfortable with him.

To take a supernatural romantic thriller and turn it into a run of the mill schlock horror at the very end made me really mad. especially the bit with the necklace, what the hell was *that* all about? Also the link between the brothers was never explained. That annoyed the hell out of me too.

Wonderful movie - 7.5 out of 10; cr*p ending - 4 out 10. Foreign films that work (like this one) should be adapted *as is* - stop messing with them for God's sake. I know a remake of the original 'Addicted' version of the ending was released as an alternative ending on the NTSC dvd, but I think it should've been the theatrical release ending and the 'horror/thriller' one the alternate.

Anyone else agree or disagree?

[–] SamAndJoon 14 years ago

I agree with everything you said....

will never understand why American filmmakers feel like they need to dumb down the endings to the films they are adapting! The alternate ending was interesting and ambiguous because even though Roman had a bad past and treated people badly, he did love Jess so much that he would've done anything to be with her (like make up the whole thing about being Ryan in Roman's body.) And he did change remarkably in the time after the accident, into a more caring person. To have him fall back into his old ways towards the end of the movie was a disservice to how much he changed as a character, and it really wasn't fair. Roman was also the more interesting character, considering how perfect they made Ryan out to be (almost without flaws from the get-go) while Roman had to change and grow as a person through the course of the film.
Really, with the alternate ending, the movie is not much of a thriller at all but more of a drama about love and loss. :(

{Never can say goodbye...R.I.P MJ}

[–] ttandb 14 years ago

@ SamAndJoon:

I think you summed up the movie perfectly and why it would've worked so much better with the 'alternate' ending as the theatrical release. Why *do* film makers always think we want a 'shoot 'em up' ending no matter what the film?

I found I didn't really like Ryan too much; I know that's awful as he was a nice man, but he was just *so* perfect - how do you live up to someone like that? I found Roman's attempts to be different, to be the better person and for something like love - not money or success - was exceptionally well portrayed by Lee Pace and really had me rooting for him, despite everything.

I would've preferred it to be the movie you described - about love and loss and how we can adapt and change and the reasons why......as Roman said "I want to be someone else" and when given the chance, he was. That was the more interesting premise for me than the (supposed) 'supernatural' one with the thriller ending. From the moment he woke up and they went down the thriller route, the theatrical release made no real cohesive sense. The alternate version was pretty much perfect and certainly gave you more to think about when it had finished.

[–] SamAndJoon 14 years ago

Yeah, on one hand I can see why Hollywood would want to market it as a thriller, to make more money and whatnot, but seeing as how it didn't even get a proper wide release or anything, going with the alternate ending really wouldn't have hurt it too much. But noooo, they have to make it look freaky in the trailer, and what the heck is with the dvd cover? It makes Sarah Michelle Gellar look all creepy and 'possessed', very misleading. Sigh... :(

And yep, Ryan really was almost too perfect, at least Roman had flaws that made him more human and interesting. Going with the theatrical ending was an injustice.....

{Never can say goodbye...R.I.P MJ}

[–] Summer1984 13 years ago

JUST CURIOUS
do u think this could ever happen to ppl? i mean blood transfer to another person lol?
i know it sounds stupid but was curious
Yours Truly,

[–] LadyDi4476 13 years ago

The entire movie was a wreck, however I feel the original alternate ending was much more creative and would have worked better. I like the idea of her realizing he's not her first husband but staying with him anyway. That's more plausible to me than her stabbing him and it becoming all "Fatal Attraction". Very lame and dumbed down!

-Di

[–] lamont-hard 13 years ago

I disagree with most posters on this, If the guy would have been honest from the start then o.k., but just how would you to expect someone trying to be your husband and all that he stood for to get to love him as her husband. Any woman with respect for there dead spouse AND HERSELF would not do this. It may have worked in s. korea with there customs and even in that film i felt she should have not went thru with it. She loved her husband and would have been thinking of him. and how she got into that position of a phoney trying to be something so endearing to her when he is not. The ending they used was perfect, anyone who would try this obviously is just as was portrayed....A PSHYCO

[–] ttandb 13 years ago

@ lamont-harden: Sadly life is not as black and white as you portray it. Humans are complex creatures and grief affects us all differently; the whole point of the Korean version's ending (and the alternate ending in the US version), was that the wife was so desperate to have her husband back and, seeing how his brother loved her (which was hinted at from the start in the US version), she was willing to clutch desperately at this single straw.

Remember in the alternate version she'd allowed her husband to be disconnected from the life support and then had him cremated - there was no way back for her at that point. Plus she was pregnant by then by the brother - so there was really only one way forward.

I think you need to watch the Korean version to see what was really the whole point of the movie - how someone was willing to go to any lengths to gain a new life, even to pretending to be his dead brother. How someone else would be so desperate to regain a loved one that would clutch at any straw - even such a deception. If love grew out of that, then so be it. I don't think it's that far fetched and I certainly don't believe that what happened are the actions of a psycho. I doubt I am alone in those opinions, as shown by the amount of people who disliked the US version of the ending they used.

Still, each to their own...

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If I wanted your opinion, I'd just study your entrails....

[–] lamont-hard 13 years ago

I was thinking that my last line of that post was a bit harsh and have softened my tone on the brother. I have seen the Korean version and felt it was just a bit different than this movie. You give a more thoughtful reason where the alternate ending was good for some viewers, and though I don't agree with it, I do think that such a thing can happen, love for a deceased one can be extended to love for someone whom may have [at least in the Korean version] loved the dead spouse as much as the wife did. This is one of the good things about these boards, I always find it enlightening when someone sees something I may have missed......On another note, I certainly know things in life are not so black and white. I don't direct this comment at you, but many viewers see films as they wish or want them to be and not as the writer has written it. I enjoy reading there comments just to get another point of view.

[–] DNAboi 12 years ago

what an idiot reply, dumb down it in the original ending? how is dumb down when people dont even understand it, sour grape hey? you just wanted to *beep* roman so much that why you prefer the alternative ending, same with the other tweenies here, btw use are all blind, ryan was the better looking brother, thats like saying josh lucas is better looking than ryan gosling, Ryan>Roman, Ryan>Lucas. you can get raped and killed by a guy like roman, that's your fantasy.

"Lifes a bitch then you die"

Ben Foster is my Dream husband
Ryan Gosling is my Dream Lover

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ttandb 12 years ago

please *don't* feed the troll........

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"Cool Fact: if you hit someone in the head with a frozen loaf of bread you can knock them unconscious" Anon