OBSESSED (C-)
Caught a showing of Obsessed this evening, and I cannot say that I was impressed with the number one movie at the box office this past weekend. First I will obviously discuss the two stunning females featured in the film, Ali Larter (Varsity Blues) and Beyonce Knowles (or Sasha Fierce, whatever this broad wants to be called. To me, she is Jay-Z's woman).
Derek (Idris Elba) and Shanon (Beyonce) are a young couple that recently had their first child, and start the film moving into a new home. Derek is one of the main players in a big company, so Shannon can stay home and raise the child. Obsessed gets interesting as we meet Ali Larter's seductive character named Lisa.
She is hired as temp at Derek's company, and her infatuation with him is apparent early in the movie. The story grows as she pretends to be crying about an issue with a man, and Derek offers her friendly consolation. After that incident, she begins to do more and more off the wall crazy things to make Derek her man.
As you can guess, Lisa's delusion brings things to the next level. The plot is similar to the movie Swimfan, but a little different twist (plus Ali Larter is way better looking, and did a better job than Erika Christensen). The plot really erupts as Lisa is showing up everywhere, and even begins to manipulate Derek's life. Viewers begin to realize, she is nuttier than squirrel turds.
Story sounds pretty interesting right?? Well, how about we start off with the good aspects of Obsessed. The music in the film was very good at setting the correct mood for the scenes. Even in the first encounter with Lisa, viewers hear a very eerie composition that inspires skepticism of her character right away.
The acting was decent, but I would not go as far to say it was good. Beyonce and Idris convinced me they were a couple, but didn't have the best of chemistry. Idris and Ali Larter's scenes were more dynamic; and viewers can really feel the frustration of the character Derek as he continues to turn down Lisa's unwanted advances.
Ali Larter plays a wonderful psycho (also played a psycho in Heroes, well 2 out of her 3 characters were anyway). The audience could never guess the lengths she would go to achieve her ultimate goal.
So, on to why this film was bad. The script was good at times, and not even close to good at others. Some of Beyonce's serious lines were ridiculous to the point of laughter...Nick Cage-Esq. Though not her fault, someone should have seen the final cut and said, "Waaaaaiitt a minute, that sounds dumb." Especially with the serious tone of the film, the script just did not always seem appropriate.
The only way to really describe parts of the script is "cheesy." The ending especially, which I will not reveal. Most of the film, the characters come off as intelligent. Towards the end viewers are asking questions brought up in bad horror movies like: Why would you go up there? Or how could you be so dumb?? The script doesn't really develop the three main characters in the film, but they all act differently as events unfurl.
The production of this film was not well executed to make it better...or even good. The movie dragged on towards the end. Obsessed could have benefited from a much shorter ending, and a less cliche one. By the end I was already disappointed, but the finale really did it for me. When the credits rolled, I said the exact words in the title of this article.
Overall, not a terrible movie; but also not worth your hard earned money spent at the theater. Obsessed already made 28.6 million at the box office this weekend, and I would not recommend you give them more. Fans of Swimfan.....nope, gotta start that over. Movie goers who liked Swimfan would dig this plot because of their similarity. However, like I stated earlier, the mediocre script and poor execution of this project does not make it worth anymore than a DVD rental. Unless you are obsessed with Ali Larter and Beyonce.....mmmmhmmm that there is the title of the film!
*
