When this horror flick debuted in late August I was rather surprised I was hearing so many positive things about the film. All of that good energy the film had going for it was lost in the first ten minutes or so as the film quickly descended into exactly the type of generic horror flick you'd expect something called "The Possession" to be. One can tell the film has a certain visual style it tries to accomplish throughout yet it is unable to rise above any of the genre's cliches with its extremely typical story. The young girl of a seemingly modern family becomes possessed through a small box having something to do with the Jewish religion. That is the twist the film hopes will pull you from the standard way these kinds of films play out. Still, simply changing the mythology of what causes the young prey to be possessed from Christian demons to Jewish doesn't constitute a strong enough argument for the film to be any better than what anyone who's seen a "scary" movie in the last decade has come to expect. Jeffrey Dean Morgan adds a fair amount of class to anything he decides to do and he does what he can here with a character so very set in his type. The divorced dad trying to move on who has issues making it to what matters for his two daughters. We like him though, we see that he is trying. The same cannot be said for Kyra Sedgwick who hardly does her job to walk the line between the ex-wife and progressive mother that we want to see Morgan's character re-unite with. Natasha Calis does some good work helping us to wince at the screen more than laugh at the absurdity of it. Still, it is hard to see the film as anything more than typical despite it trying so hard to rise above the negativity associated with that word. D 
I somewhat expected to be let down by the Viola Davis/Maggie Gyllenhaal vehicle that seemed to be purely inspirational for the purposes of honorable performances hoping to get noticed by Oscar. Though Won't Back Down is anything but subtle about its purpose and wears its heart on its sleeve proudly, it isn't anywhere near deserving of the fate it suffered at the box office. In fact, it is a rather affirming film that succeeds in large part to its strong lead performances that aren't as showy or as cheesy as I expected. Though Gyllenhaal certainly has the flashier role, she is able to subdue much of the typical aspects of what one might expect from her type of character by allowing the most important factor to never be forgotten, that she is in fact a mother first. Letting that sink in allows us to go along with the story written and directed by Daniel Barnz (who's had similar failure with Beastly) but knows as a writer how to navigate his way through a ton of information and streamline it into what the audience needs to grasp in order to maintain the main points of the story. He does that well here considering the difficult processes and massive amount of details likely required to do what these women decide to take on. The negative aspect to this though is his inability to pace his final product better. By the time we get to the halfway mark it feels like it should be drawing to a close. Viola Davis displays her strong instincts here but adds layers of uncertainty and regret for good measure. Despite glancing at my watch a few times throughout I still rather enjoyed the film for what it was and what it was trying to say. There is also the charming supporting cast that features Oscar Isaac and Rosie Perez that add nothing if not a little forgiveness for the overall films shortcomings. B-For Past DVD & Blu-Ray Releases Click Here.
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