Obsessed
by Steve Shill
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Actor: Ali Larter, Beyoncé Knowles, Bonnie Perlman, Idris Elba, Jerry O'ConnellDirector: Steve Shill
Brand: ELBA,IDRIS
Producer: Beyoncé Knowles
Producer: Damon Lee
Producer: David Loughery
Writer: David Loughery
Producer: George Flynn
Producer: Glenn S. Gainor
Producer: Jeffrey Graup
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.40:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-08-04
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Obsessed
DVD Review: CHANGE THE PERFUME'S NAME
Summary: 3 Stars
Obsession is used in so many things these days, from describing how people relate to politics to perfume. Now the name has been taken and used for a feature film that offers little new but delivers the goods for fans of the genre.
That genre is the cheated on spouse whose rival goes crazy and attempts to take over. Perhaps the biggest known film in this genre was FATAL ATTRACTION. After that film came out, it's hard to believe anyone would be stupid enough to cheat on their spouse. And yet they continue to do so. If not we wouldn't have films like OBSESSED.
Derek Charles (Idris Elba) is an asset manager with a major firm. He's just about to land the biggest contract of his career, things are going well with his wife Sharon (Beyonce Knowles) and they've recently had a child. Life couldn't be better.
Then one day a secretary takes ill and Derek finds a temp in the office by the name of Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter). They first meet accidentally in the elevator but not long after he finds Lisa working as a temp for his ill assistant. While she seems efficient, she has a certain air of familiarity about her that bothers Derek.
No doubt this comes from a past of flirting in the office, a past that resulted in his marrying Sharon. And the two of them made a pact of no female secretaries. When Sharon discovers the young woman working there, she gets angry (since he told her she was plain looking) and suggests he find a replacement. This happens soon enough when his assistant comes back. But then Lisa snags a job replacing another ill secretary.
At the office Christmas party, Lisa makes her play for Derek by trying to catch him under the mistletoe. This lame ploy is brushed off but not before she follows him into the men's room and plants a big old wet one on him. Not one to fall back on his old ways, Derek rebuffs her attempt but she doesn't let go. Then again, he fails to mention the problem to Sharon.
Instead not long after, Derek finds himself about to head home in the parking garage when Lisa jumps into his car wearing a trench coat. And underneath? A revealing teddy. Derek insists she get out of the car but Lisa is convinced that he truly loves her. While he continues to tell her to get out, she argues until he finally gets her to leave. Swearing to tell Sharon when he gets home, he puts it off when he finds her crying about her sister whose husband has just had an affair.
Push comes to shove and Lisa attempts suicide blaming Derek for the whole thing. The police now begin to investigate Derek even though he denies everything. Lisa has planned this well and the evidence all points to the two of them having had an affair. He denies, she confirms. And Sharon, fearful of his previous indiscretions prior to their marriage, believes Lisa and kicks Derek out.
Eventually the proof comes out of Derek's innocence. Months go by and Sharon forgives him, even though he did nothing wrong with the exception of not telling her immediately. Lisa has returned to the care of her sister after the initial hospital stay. But she's out again and about to make one last attempt to regain the man she is certain loves her. While that may be her desire, it isn't one Sharon is bound to take lightly and the battle is on.
It would be easy to say that this film is predictable, because honestly it is. But there are some films that come along that are predictable and that's okay. It forms a sort of shorthand for the viewer and fulfills the need for this sort of trashy romance type film.
While it does fill that need, it left me feeling like it was more routine than anything. I found it hard to believe that someone who has worked so hard to get where he is could act so stupidly and not notice what is right before his eyes. The character of Sharon was such a shrew at times I had a hard time sympathizing. She was so determined to believe Derek could do wrong that she never gave him a chance to speak let alone defend himself. For two people so in love one would think at least she would give him the chance.
The actors perform well in this outing, doing what a good actor does. They make you lose the idea that this is an actor and instead believe them in their roles. Especially well done is the performance by Larter which could have found its way into cliché. Instead she comes off as truly scary while at the same time making you feel a touch of sympathy for her and her unstable condition. She only wants to be loved.
While the performance delivers that, one has to also suspend belief to the extreme to believe that someone as attractive as Larter wouldn't be able to find someone who cared for her. Even a shallow relationship would have been enough for the character of Lisa to jump at. Then again, I guess one could always fall back on the idea that "it's only a movie".
So does it entertain? Does it make for a good viewing? Sure, especially if you like this genre. For a night's rental you could do worse. As for a vehicle that will drive the career forward of Beyonce? I don't think this one will do it. She seems truly capable in her role here. But Larter steals the show in the juicier of the two parts.
Description of Obsessed
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 4-AUG-2009
Media Type: DVD
Obsessed is one of those movies best described as ?a stylish thriller?: the characters are mostly young and gorgeous, with their white-collar gigs, designer duds, and fancy cars, and if there?s not much of substance to be found beneath those sleek, polished surfaces, well, who says a story must have a message to be entertaining? The comparisons to Fatal Attraction (with its jilted would-be lover going all psycho on the object of her, uh, affections) and Disclosure (with its reverse sexual harassment) are apt enough, but Obsessed is a little different. For starters, unlike the character played by Michael Douglas in Attraction, this film?s Derek Charles (Idris Elba) does little to encourage Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter), the temp worker at his asset-management firm who gloms onto him like a lamprey sucking on its unwilling host; for another, Derek?s wife, Sharon (Beyonce Knowles), is no wallflower who stands idly and ignorantly by while her life is shredded by her hubby?s evasions and the increasingly crazed tactics of the woman who?s stalking him (it?s to the credit of director Steve Shill and screenwriter David Loughery that nothing whatsoever is made of the fact that Derek is black and Lisa is white). Still, the holes in the plot are big enough to drive several Mercedes sedans through. For one thing, Lisa?s fixation on Derek seems to come out of nowhere (if she has a past, we?re not told about it); what's more, even if Derek has broken his deal with Sharon not to have any female assistants (she was once one herself), it seems mighty extreme for her to kick him out of the house for three months simply for not coming completely clean about his mostly-innocent dealings with Lisa. Still, the film manages to make the viewer feel Derek?s helpless desperation at being targeted by this manipulative nut job, and when Sharon finally confronts her family?s tormentor at the end (?You think you?re crazy? I?ll show you crazy!?), the result is silly but somehow satisfying. --Sam Graham
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