Looking at writer-director Matthew Holness's filmography, I see that his previous directorial efforts were all shorts. That is not surprising. POSSUM is a solitary note sustained for an interminable 85 minutes, and the place where it ends is scarcely different from where it begins. This movie fails to justify its running time.
POSSUM has some undeniably strong elements that would have served a short film well: a disturbing puppet designed by Dominic Hailstone; the restrained, tortured performance of lead actor Sean Harris; his unsettling, ambiguous conversations with Alun Armstrong; a Babadookesque handwritten children's book with some effectively chilling chiaroscuro sketches; interior and exterior locations that are appropriately filthy; and some solid cinematography to frame it all.
However, nothing much is done with any of this. The same scenarios repeat over and over again throughout the runtime in a way that fails to escalate the tension. The imagery is diluted through constant recycling. As a character study, it likewise fails insofar as the protagonist's psychology remains shrouded in mystery for far too long, only to eventually reveal motivations and anxieties that are both predictable and cliche.
It's certainly possible to have a psychological thriller where not much happens, the same images more or less repeat, and there isn't a whole lot of plot, yet the tension remains palpable, the dread grows, and you feel like you're experiencing something meaningful with the main character. I'm thinking of JEANNE DIELMAN (a very different movie, I know), or maybe ERASERHEAD.
POSSUM, however, is not such a movie. This should have been a short film. At 7-9 minutes, this could have been creepy, evocative, and memorable. At 85 minutes, it's just a waste of time.
POSSUM has some undeniably strong elements that would have served a short film well: a disturbing puppet designed by Dominic Hailstone; the restrained, tortured performance of lead actor Sean Harris; his unsettling, ambiguous conversations with Alun Armstrong; a Babadookesque handwritten children's book with some effectively chilling chiaroscuro sketches; interior and exterior locations that are appropriately filthy; and some solid cinematography to frame it all.
However, nothing much is done with any of this. The same scenarios repeat over and over again throughout the runtime in a way that fails to escalate the tension. The imagery is diluted through constant recycling. As a character study, it likewise fails insofar as the protagonist's psychology remains shrouded in mystery for far too long, only to eventually reveal motivations and anxieties that are both predictable and cliche.
It's certainly possible to have a psychological thriller where not much happens, the same images more or less repeat, and there isn't a whole lot of plot, yet the tension remains palpable, the dread grows, and you feel like you're experiencing something meaningful with the main character. I'm thinking of JEANNE DIELMAN (a very different movie, I know), or maybe ERASERHEAD.
POSSUM, however, is not such a movie. This should have been a short film. At 7-9 minutes, this could have been creepy, evocative, and memorable. At 85 minutes, it's just a waste of time.