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While not as complex or frightening as Adrian Lynn’s
“Fatal Attraction,” “Obsessed” still manages to be an entertaining
film. In one very crucial way, it breaks tradition with
the average domestic thriller: There’s no infidelity. There’s
an awful lot of flirtation, no question, but when it comes
to faithfulness, the married man gets high marks. ***
I’m referring to Derek Charles (Idris Elba), a Los
Angeles asset manager. He becomes the object of a new office
temp’s desire, and as we see over the film’s 105 minutes,
she’ll go to just about any lengths to get what she’s after.
I agree that this is hardly an original premise, and at
times, the film seems more interested in being formulaic
than in being compelling. But at the very least, it makes
due with what little it has, which is to say that it’s perfectly
acceptable. ***
It’s a classic scenario: Not only has Derek just been
promoted to the rank of Executive Vice President, he also
has a beautiful family and a luxurious new house. He’s respected
by his colleagues, his superiors trust him deeply, and he
has great friends. Things are going really well. ***
Then comes the day he enters an elevator and meets Lisa
(Ari Larter), a sultry beauty with long blonde hair and
a killer figure. She’s carrying a large amount of paperwork,
so much so that she inevitably drops them in a moment of
clumsiness. Derek, trying to be nice, offers to help her
out, and that leads to the next inevitable moment--they
reach for the same piece of paper at the same time, resulting
in their hands touching. There’s nothing subtle about this.
For that matter, there’s nothing subtle about the entire
film, which has no qualms about going for the obvious. ***
Take, for example, a scene that takes place some weeks
after Derek and Lisa first meet: Derek walks into the lounge
area and sees Lisa on the verge of tears. He assumes she’s
having boyfriend trouble, and encourages her by saying how
pretty she is and how any man would be lucky to know her.
In fact, if he was single ... ah, but he doesn’t finish
his sentence. ***
There are two specific reasons why people do this:
(1) some people don’t actually mean it when they say it,
so there’s no point in completing the thought; (2) some
people are afraid that they do mean what they’re saying,
and therefore don’t want to incriminate themselves any further.
What reasoning do you think Derek followed? Choose whichever
one you think applies. I have a feeling the filmmakers wanted
it to be ambiguous. ***
It isn’t long before Derek regrets ever having met
Lisa. In spite of the fact that she’s incredibly efficient
(at times frighteningly so), she rapidly becomes overly
friendly, pretty much to the point of intrusiveness. It
isn’t until the annual office Christmas party that things
begin taking a darker turn; Lisa takes advantage of the
fact that Derek has had one too many and tries to have sex
with him in a bathroom stall. He wards her off, but that
doesn’t stop her from trying again the next day, when she
insistently gets into his car as he’s leaving work. ***
Before I go any further, let me backtrack a bit and
talk about Derek’s wife, Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles), who looks
bootylicious but acts, for the most part, like a typical
wife and mother. When she first learns that a new female
temp is working for Derek, she jokingly chides him for allowing
such a thing to happen. Then the two actually meet, and
while it’s too early for Sharon to be suspicious, she definitely
shows concern. Let’s face it--Lisa’s a beautiful woman and
Derek is a handsome man. It doesn’t take a genius to see
what could potentially happen. ***
As Lisa’s attempts at seduction grow more and more brazen,
Derek finds himself in a very awkward position, desperate
to maintain his reputation but even more desperate to distance
himself from Lisa. There inevitably comes a point at which
Sharon finds out that something isn’t quite right, that
Lisa labors under the delusion that Derek is in love with
her. This paves the way for the final confrontation, which,
for me at least, was the weakest section of the film, designed
less like a plausible plot point and more like an excuse
to have two women fighting. I have no doubt many will see
this movie specifically for this scene. ***
There are other aspects that don’t work too well, including
a strange camaraderie between Lisa and a gay office assistant
named Patrick (Matthew Humphreys). Within the context of
this story, I failed to see how this character was necessary--other
than a few stereotypical one-liners and some witty banter,
he contributes nothing to the story. There’s also Derek’s
office buddy, Ben (Jerry O’Connell), a sex-hungry party
animal who seems to lack the conviction of his personality.
He too contributes nothing to the story. Fortunately, these
are side characters that have little bearing on either the
central story or the three main characters, all of which
are the most developed components of “Obsessed.” ***
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