Once in a while, I see a film that starts off with me believing that my trailer-sense (ever see a trailer and “know” the movie was awful/amazing?) was off. A lot of people get this feeling, making them say things like, “it was better than I expected”. Even stranger, I sometimes discount my trailer-sense only to later reaffirm my initial assumption.
Derek Charles (Idris Elba) has it all going for him. He’s a VP at a rising firm in Los Angeles, and everyday he gets to come home to a new house occupied by his wife Sharon (Beyonce Knowles) and their toddler son. Much of this shown during the music video that is the film’s introduction. Everything is going well. Derek is driving to work, and the audience appears to be watching a technically well-crafted film. Once at work, Derek bumps into Lisa (Ali Larter) on the elevator. She’s working with his company temporarily, but more importantly has a dangerously flirtatious secretive demeanor. Before long she is hitting Derek with all her arsenal, while he makes like a loyal husband and declines. That doesn’t sit well with Lisa, so she shits strategies into tearing his life apart.
As much as I was surprised by the solid acting of Elba and Larter, I was also surprised by occasionally well crafted lines. In one clever line, Lisa makes a sly reference to Derek’s sister, whom she appears to have a feud with. Tiny moment like this can’t elude the shadow cast by the glorious flaws of Obsessed. They are numerous, but occur in a manner that they didn’t truly bother me till nearing the end of the film. To start, why is Ali Larter in this movie? Her character, looking like her, would have no trouble finding a man. It’s as irrelevant as having Matthew McConaughey star in Failure to Launch. Even more troublesome is how the stage is set to make crafty racial statements, and zero are attempted. Would it hurt to give Lisa a motive? Derek is rich, so extortion seems plausible. It’s more likely that what is actually depicted which I inferred as an unwavering commitment to hide and seek.
Beyonce Knowles. That is a sentence in itself. She’s hardly in the film, and she is the only reason it is getting a nationwide release. She clearly signed up on the perceived strength of her climactic showdown with Larter. This was actually the moment where all things bad come full circle. Name a movie where women are warring over a man, a film that takes itself seriously, and they have to pause briefly to answer the phone?
Obsessed in one of those films where the more you think about it, the less you can stand it. For the first act the simple story combined with good aesthetics, were enough for me to be pleased. Copped out logic holes become the forbearer of worse news. Writer David Loughery wants to explain everything by simply saying that Lisa is crazy. What a great plan, and I’m sure no audience will laugh unintentionally at Sharon’s tough urban interjections either.
As easy as it is to attack the glaring flaws, Obsessed kept a good pace and made for a mildly amusing viewing. A simple story which doesn’t complete add up, has a much better chance than a complex tale which defeats itself. You know from the trailer and the tv spots that Larter is the bad girl. Said promotional material actually gives away enough that you don’t need to leave home. If only she had a real motive, I could maybe tack on an extra half star. **
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