Beyoncé Kills in Psychological Thriller Obsessed
Ali Larter, Idris Elba Join Knowles for Wild Ride in a Crazy Mind
Apr 27, 2009
And protect them she does. Beyoncé plays Sharon Charles, a young mother who has just moved into a new home with her baby and perfect husband, who just received a promotion. They have the ideal life that everyone wants. The problem is a crazy woman decides she wants more than just a life like theirs, she wants that exact life, only with Sharon gone.
Plot of Obsessed
Lisa (Ali Larter, Heroes) starts out sweet and innocently flirtatious – she jokes with Derek Charles (Idris Elba, The Office) in the elevator, tries to elicit compliments from him and “accidentally” drops the stacks of paper she’s holding so she can brush his hand as he helps her pick them up. It’s a little harmless office flirting, right?
Wrong, and the viewer knows it. If the movie name and the previews with Sharon and Lisa in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight on the second floor of the Charles’ house doesn’t give away the creeptastic nature of Lisa’s feelings for Derek, the viewers will figure it out by their third run-in. Derek’s assistant is mysteriously out with the flu one day, and Lisa wrangles her way into Derek’s office, ever the efficient temp – so efficient, in fact, that she already called the sick assistant to find out Derek’s coffee order and sent flowers to his wife, a Monday-morning ritual.
The situation crescendos as Lisa continues to creep around Derek’s office, chat with him online and break down in the break room just as Derek walks in, giving him ample time to comfort her. She even shows up at the bar where he’s eating right before the no-spouses corporate Christmas party, where after a couple of dirty martinis they’re dancing in the direction of the mistletoe. She brazenly invites a kiss; he politely declines and decides to head home after a quick trip to the men’s room.
Did Anything Interesting Happen?
Lisa attacks. She shoves him into a stall and starts kissing him. His escape is blocked by a drunk man who stumbled in right after Lisa and would be sure to gossip if he saw what was happening. Derek makes it out but doesn’t tell Sharon, even though she asks what happened at the party. The next day Lisa’s back at it. She tells him how much their rendezvous meant and how much it means to her that he loves her. Derek, at a loss as to what she is thinking and how he got into this situation, goes home determined to confess all to Sharon.
It doesn’t happen. Neither does his decision to tell human resources; he finds out Lisa has quit so he doesn’t say anything. But she just keeps coming back. In her head, the two of them have a beautiful relationship, Derek is going to leave Sharon, and life is perfect. In the real world, her suicide attempt is under investigation, Sharon kicked Derek out of the house, and he wants nothing more than to stay far away from the one woman who desperately wants him and to get back with the woman who wants nothing to do with him.
Time passes, Derek comes home, Lisa swoops back in, and the story pounds into its predictable ending. Lisa sneaks into the house, Sharon comes home unexpectedly and finds her there. This isn’t a nail-scratching, eye-gouging, hair-pulling girl fight, though. Despite the fact that Lisa is wearing only a T-shirt and Sharon is in high-heeled boots, the two go at each other intending to kill.
The fight is intense, but in many ways it feels more like a release for all of the emotions the viewers have been feeling throughout the movie. It’s serious, sure, but Lisa’s delusions and her willingness to do anything to get at Derek are much more psychologically disturbing than the two women strangling each other over the stairwell. The fight, well, that’s just the natural conclusion of what the entire movie has been leading up to.
Final Credits
The movie is good, but not incredibly unpredictable. There are some intense moments, there are some sweet and romantic moments, and there’s one moment when every female in the theater will be mentally high-fiving Beyoncé for putting her dressy, classy, high-heeled boot down and defending her turf. The most stressful part of the storyline is watching Derek stumble through this awful relationship and not do anything about it. Viewers will want him to tell someone and do something about it, then will hurt with him when his wife tells him to get out of her house.
But viewers also will never doubt that Derek and Sharon will end up together, and even Lisa’s finish isn’t much of a surprise. The movie has a weird mix of drama, action and romance that director Steve Shill must have enjoyed putting together and that all three main actors should have had a good time performing. It even manages to be a pretty good date movie that both sexes will enjoy.
Obsessed is rated PG-13 for violence, language and some sexual content. It's not a children's movie.
