A GUILTY PLEASURE THAT IS JUST PLAIN GUILTY: a review of "Obsessed"

In the last post from the archives for "Orphan," there was a reference to a previous posting...a posting that I hadn't placed onto "Savage Cinema" yet. The following review is that elusive posting. Perhaps you can take this backwards reference as something "Salingeresque" or something out of a Tarantino film...OK, yes it is a huge stretch but I thought I'd go for it.

Originally written September 3, 2009

"OBSESSED" Directed by Steve Shill
** (two stars)

I have a confession to make. If I am at home flipping through channels and discover that a certain movie is playing, I will ALWAYS stop on said channel and watch to my heart's content. Now, I must inform you that this is not a good movie in the least. It is actually fairly negligible but I cannot turn away, and it never gets old. Brace yourselves...The movie is: "Friends 'Til The End," a television movie starring Shannon Doherty as a college student trapped within a "single white female" scenario with some blond rival who wants to steal all aspects of her life, including her role as a lead singer in a college 10,000 Maniacs styled band. Doherty handles her own singing in the movie's many musical numbers and I have to report that the songs aren't half bad and a music video sequence set in a desert with a phone booth is a high point. But the story contains every possible cliche you could think of within the "...from hell" genre (i.e. The Teacher From Hell, The Stepmother From Hell, The Neighbor From Hell, etc...) and the entertainment value is priceless!

While I have to again state that "Friends 'Til The End" is not a good movie in the least, sometimes the very best thing in the world is a good bad movie. One where the laughs are completely unintentional and you cannot believe that at any point during the filmmaking process all parties involved felt they were onto something tremendous. I have had quite a few guilty pleasures in my life and I am always on the lookout for something new. I have to say that I had high hopes when I first saw the trailer for "Obsessed," a new thriller starring Beyonce Knowles but sadly, aside from the climax (more on that later), it did not deliver the goods.

"Obsessed" begins with happily married couple, Sharon and Derek Charles' (Knowles and Idris Elba from HBO's astonishing series "The Wire") arrival in their new home. With an infant son in tow, they marvel at this lovely next step in their lives together as Derek has just received a massive promotion within his company as an assets manager (Their happiness is an act christened with a PG-13 lovemaking sequence on the bedroom floor with a ceiling mirror to boot!). The very next day, Derek meets Lisa Sheridan (Ali Larter from "Heroes"), a vampish new temporary secretary who makes it quite clear of her carnal intentions. Lisa's seemingly harmless flirtation turns to stalking and when Derek rebuffs her charms at an office party and later when she slides into his car wearing little more than flashy undergarments, she becomes OBSESSED with her pursuit, thus placing Derek's career and marriage in jeopardy.

All of this has the marking of a hilariously passable "Fatal Attraction" knock off at best but with it's turgid pacing, weak characterizations, and anemic motivations, the movie doesn't spring to life until its inevitable and almost screamingly funny climax where Knowles and Larter finally face off--in high heels inside of a not-too sturdy attic. Watch your step!

The biggest problem for me is that it was a movie that was solely designed to reach a certain ending (Knowles beats the tar out of Larter). Unfortunately, it forgot to place anything else of note in the entirely of the film up to that point and that makes the whole thing a slog. A favorite guilty pleasure of mine happens to be the "dramatic thriller" about wife abuse, "Enough" starring Jennifer Lopez. Now that was also a film solely designed to have a certain ending (J Lo beats the tar out of her violent husband) but from the very beginning, "Enough" had more than enough preposterous and extremely (and again unintentionally) comic situations. The melodrama was cranked to 11. The absolute omnipotence of her husband was outrageous. The presence of a hysterically whiny child, Noah Wyle as a villain and once Fred Ward arrived as J Lo.'s long-lost absentee father, it just couldn't get any more laughable. And THEN J Lo. goes through combat training. "Enough" never knew when to quit and that's what made it a terrific example of the good bad movie.

Couldn't the filmmakers behind "Obsessed," do anything to serve their actors better? Knowles is truly wasted in a part that really required her to do little more than sit at home glamorously with her baby. Idris Elba, so compelling, ruthless, and deeply charismatic as the swaggering drug lord Stringer Bell on "The Wire" has been completely stripped of all of his attributes and transformed into a strikingly bland hero. Only Larter seems to be having any fun and she's not doing anything much different than her typical performances anyway.

So, ultimately, I did not get my wish for a new guilty pleasure to be added to my personal archives but I'm happily waiting for the next time "Friends 'Til The End" shows up on cable.