Ten years ago, I wailed and sputtered in this space about a thriller called Double Jeopardy. The opening paragraph of the piece read: "For film buffs, there are few things more annoying than movie trailers that give away too much of the plot. The pinnacle of this peculiar form of marketing comes with the promotional campaign for Double Jeopardy, a Fugitive knock-off starring Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones. If you've seen the commercials for the film, there's no need to visit the theater, because the ads are a veritable Cliffs Notes version of the thriller, spilling every major plot point of the story."
A week or two later, I read an interview with one of the filmmakers, who stated he knew about, and approved of, the ad campaign. Sometimes, he explained, people are happier when they know what exactly they're going to get before they go to the cinema. It's comforting, and more cost effective, if they have the story spelled out ahead of time, so they can enter the auditorium assured that they will get what they paid for. Fine, OK, I understand. Some people like their movies pre-chewed. Good for them. But if a movie is going to reveal the plot in the ads, it better deliver what it promises.
Before I continue, I should say SPOILER ALERT: THE REST OF THIS ESSAY REVEALS MAJOR PLOT POINTS. If they do it in their own ads, I'm not holding back here.
Obsessed is about a crazy white bitch who stalks a proud, faithful black man until his hot-tempered, proud, faithful black wife gets into a royal smackdown with the skank and cleans her clock once and for all. Yes, it all builds to a big-ass cat fight, and a bi-racial one to boot, starring superstar Beyoncé as the wronged wife and Ali Larter, the smirky blond from Heroes, as the would-be home wrecker.
So, does Obsessed deliver what it advertises? Well, Beyoncé Knowles fans get to see her wear lots of beautiful outfits before she takes on the stalker, and the climactic, cathartic cat-fight is as big, exciting and stupid as most climactic, cathartic fight scenes are. The movie depends on coincidence and gaping holes in logic to get to the cat-fight, but we all knew that would happen, right? So, technically, the movie delivers what it promises. But is the McMovie satisfying?
Not so much for me. Beyoncé is a good actor, but her character here is one-dimensional and she doesn't get any really juicy scenes until the third act. Ali Larter's character, the smug sexpot, is also one-note. From the moment she meets the devoted hubby (Idris Elba from The Wire, who tries hard to add nuance to his character), she displays the expressions and actions of an aggressive psycho stalker.
Why does she do it? We don't know and they don't give us a hint. And, if the husband and wife are the perfect couple, then why doesn't he tell her about the wacko from the start and, when he finally spills the beans, why doesn't his perfect wife believe him? OK, this ain't art, it's product, but here's the big thing: For Obsessed to pay off, there needs to be a moment where we see Beyoncé's character realize that she was tricked by a psycho into turning on her husband. That moment isn't there. Beyoncé goes from devoted wife to outraged wife to warrior wife, but we never get that moment of horrified realization. Instead, we get cardboard people taking too long to get to the scene everybody came to see. Truth in advertising? I dunno.
