I love a good exploitation film – if it is done right and it has plenty of thrills to keep me interested. ‘Obsessed’ – at least from the trailers – seemed to have the promise of a good exploitation film. Good looking actors: Beyonce Knowles (Cadillac Records, a much, MUCH better film), Ali Larter (Heroes) and Idris Elba (The Wire and more recently The Office), a campy plot: office temp becomes obsessed with the up and coming young executive and finally, the big pay-off: the girl on girl cat fight! Unfortunately the director, Steve Shill (Dexter, notice a theme here – all TV people trying to cross to Hollywood) has no clue how to build suspense or even build believable characters. The only thing I was obsessed with during this film was my watch looking for the ending.
‘Obsessed’ has many issues – many of which are centered on Lisa (Ali Larter) a character that seems to be along the vein of ‘Fatal Attraction’ although not near as real. During her tenure on ‘Heroes’ I have enjoyed Larter and her characters; in ‘Obsessed’ – Lisa is a simple cardboard villain , one that we have seen a thousand times before on any Lifetime made for TV movie. There is no emotion to Lisa – no real reason for her obsession. I found her to be a joke throughout most of the movie and simply not menacing at all. It is hard to take a ‘thriller’ seriously if the main villain is viewed as a joke. If you want menacing rent ‘Fatal Attraction’, Glenn Close will keep you checking the soup pot for stewed rabbit for months.
Shill does not take the time to develop any of the characters in this film so as an audience we never get to the point of caring what happens. Every move Lisa (Larter) makes is predictable. Every move Derek (Elba) makes is predictable and every move Sharon (Knowles) makes is equally as predictable. Heck – even the babysitter is predictable!
But I have to admit, the target audience here is not the discerning adult, hence the PG-13 rating. It is the ‘tween’ audience that is looking for Knowles to beat up a skinny blonde girl – which Shill delivers in unapologetic fashion. Campy lines are fiercely thrown about in the final scene (and I am not spoiling anything here, trust me) as Lisa and Sharon battle royal, Lisa of course is in a t-shirt and BVDs. The action is absurd almost comical, the score is atrocious and the acting is amateurish. Even the ending was predicable; in fact I was waiting for an alien to come popping out from Lisa’s stomach to wreak more havoc upon Sharon. NOW that would have been a good movie!
Not obsessing about ‘Obsessed’! ½ Star.
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