I never thought Fatal Attraction would look deep and intricate until I saw Obsessed. It really made me appreciate the work that went into the 1987 film. By comparison, and even by itself, Obsessed had almost nothing to it. Despite production credits that boasted Beyonce Knowles and Magic Johnson, it would have been weak even as a TV movie.
The only good thing about the film owed less to Fatal Attraction than to Disclosure. Obsession created a sketchy but interesting picture of just how much of a mess sexual harassment by a female employee could create for a good boss and family man when he did nothing wrong but circumstances conspired to make it look like he did.
Here, the guy was a young executive at a hard-working, hard-partying investment firm. A good-looking guy with a history as a "player," he married his last female office assistant. A sexy blonde temp is attracted to him, and his office buddy reacts with a "go for it" locker-room mentality. The exec has a lot to lose.
His wife is high-maintenance, strong-willed, and jealous, insisting that only male secretaries can work for him. Then his wife got even more touchy when her sister's marriage hit the rocks over infidelity. Another source of tension is that the exec is uncomfortable with his wife's plan to go back to school to "get her degree" (in what is not clear), now that their son was born.
At work, the exec is important to client relationships and to his firm's reputation. The temp uses her position (including listening in on his phone calls and manipulating his weakling permanent assistant) to get information about him. After several polite conversations, she suddenly became hyper-aggressive, ambushing the exec in a stall in the men's bathroom during an office holiday party (about the only scene in the movie with any real suspense, as to whether his co-workers would see and misinterpret what was going on) and in his car in the office parking garage. He rejected her and tried to discuss it with his wife, his buddy, and a human resources official, but for natural enough reasons ended up holding back each time. When the woman attempted suicide, after somehow secretly gaining access to his hotel room at a firm retreat, the situation blew up, with him looking terrible to his wife, co-workers, and police.
But the movie failed to develop the situation effectively or to take it anywhere. At crucial points in the story, the temp simply disappeared, either quitting work or being whisked away to another city by an unseen sister. Her actions did not build into a fast-paced, suspenseful sequence of events. Instead, even when reasonably well executed -- such as a visit to the exec's house to fool the babysitter into letting her get access to the baby -- they seemed aimless and disorganized. A prime example: the night before the suicide attempt, the temp drugged the guy senseless; in a confusing, dream-like sequence, she then showed up in his hotel room and got into bed with him. Nothing was ever made of this scene. Then the movie really fell apart, with little happening -- none of it surprising, interesting, or entertaining. This included a ridiculous, stagey, drawn-out catfight to the death between the wife and the scantily clad temp at the end. Musical sequences went on way too long in the movie and did not seem to fit. The pace was too slow.
Idris Elba was good, if somewhat wooden, with what he was given to do as the male lead. The temp was the thinnest of cardboard characters, a pure psycho with not a shred of depth or background or explanation for her behavior and with nothing meaningful to say or do. Frankly, I was embarrassed for Ali Lartner, who had nothing to work with in this film but her good looks. Beyonce seemed okay in the thin role of the wife until toward the end, when her lines and actions sunk to the worst of smack-mouth, tough-mama clichés. None of the supporting cast added anything worthwhile or memorable; all were let down by the weak material, especially the intelligent Christine Lahti looking pathetically ineffectual as a police detective.
I had hoped that this movie would be fun and interesting to watch. Instead, it was a near-total waste of time.
The only good thing about the film owed less to Fatal Attraction than to Disclosure. Obsession created a sketchy but interesting picture of just how much of a mess sexual harassment by a female employee could create for a good boss and family man when he did nothing wrong but circumstances conspired to make it look like he did.
Here, the guy was a young executive at a hard-working, hard-partying investment firm. A good-looking guy with a history as a "player," he married his last female office assistant. A sexy blonde temp is attracted to him, and his office buddy reacts with a "go for it" locker-room mentality. The exec has a lot to lose.
His wife is high-maintenance, strong-willed, and jealous, insisting that only male secretaries can work for him. Then his wife got even more touchy when her sister's marriage hit the rocks over infidelity. Another source of tension is that the exec is uncomfortable with his wife's plan to go back to school to "get her degree" (in what is not clear), now that their son was born.
At work, the exec is important to client relationships and to his firm's reputation. The temp uses her position (including listening in on his phone calls and manipulating his weakling permanent assistant) to get information about him. After several polite conversations, she suddenly became hyper-aggressive, ambushing the exec in a stall in the men's bathroom during an office holiday party (about the only scene in the movie with any real suspense, as to whether his co-workers would see and misinterpret what was going on) and in his car in the office parking garage. He rejected her and tried to discuss it with his wife, his buddy, and a human resources official, but for natural enough reasons ended up holding back each time. When the woman attempted suicide, after somehow secretly gaining access to his hotel room at a firm retreat, the situation blew up, with him looking terrible to his wife, co-workers, and police.
But the movie failed to develop the situation effectively or to take it anywhere. At crucial points in the story, the temp simply disappeared, either quitting work or being whisked away to another city by an unseen sister. Her actions did not build into a fast-paced, suspenseful sequence of events. Instead, even when reasonably well executed -- such as a visit to the exec's house to fool the babysitter into letting her get access to the baby -- they seemed aimless and disorganized. A prime example: the night before the suicide attempt, the temp drugged the guy senseless; in a confusing, dream-like sequence, she then showed up in his hotel room and got into bed with him. Nothing was ever made of this scene. Then the movie really fell apart, with little happening -- none of it surprising, interesting, or entertaining. This included a ridiculous, stagey, drawn-out catfight to the death between the wife and the scantily clad temp at the end. Musical sequences went on way too long in the movie and did not seem to fit. The pace was too slow.
Idris Elba was good, if somewhat wooden, with what he was given to do as the male lead. The temp was the thinnest of cardboard characters, a pure psycho with not a shred of depth or background or explanation for her behavior and with nothing meaningful to say or do. Frankly, I was embarrassed for Ali Lartner, who had nothing to work with in this film but her good looks. Beyonce seemed okay in the thin role of the wife until toward the end, when her lines and actions sunk to the worst of smack-mouth, tough-mama clichés. None of the supporting cast added anything worthwhile or memorable; all were let down by the weak material, especially the intelligent Christine Lahti looking pathetically ineffectual as a police detective.
I had hoped that this movie would be fun and interesting to watch. Instead, it was a near-total waste of time.
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