the real question be this represent if a director infamous for make bad film finally make one that sorta ok and do he deserve rich praise . my answer be no . possession be mean to be two movie and which it be . unfortunately director neil labute manage to only make only one of those movie worth watch . set in the present with flashback to the 19th century and the film be about two literary expert with a love of victorian poetry who discover a shocking secret about a revered 19th century poet . the period portion of the film be excellent and mainly due to some uncharacteristically good directing by labute and excellent acting by jennifer ehle and the always great jeremy northham ( if there be any justice this guy would be a major star ) . sadly the modern day character be not play by actor of such caliber . gwyneth paltrow i suppose should be give credit for be occasionally ok and but neil labute cohort aaron eckhart be a positively disastrous choice to play the lead . he clearly have no insight into a character who be suppose to be this sophisticated and and instead play him a a stereotypically cartoonish american male slob who inexplicably love english poetry ( and be a scholar to boot . ) add in some truly bad writing and dialogue and a screenplay that suffer from logic gap and you have get a frustrating movie that might have be good but ultimately isn not . you will be laugh at all the wrong part .