Nikki: el juguete diabólico

In Los Angeles, the loneliness and efficient technical writer Kenneth Winslow (Desmond Harrington) is challenged to write three long technical manuals in a very short period. His boss Novak (Rip Torn) assigns the temporary typist Lisa Bellmer (Melissa Sagemiller) to help him in the task. In the office, Kenneth's colleagues show him an expensive rubber sex doll called "Nikki" in Internet, and Kenneth decides to buy it. When Nikki is delivered, the snoopy manager of his building becomes curious with the huge package. Kenneth reads Nikki's manual and uses the image of Lisa to give a sort of "personality" to the doll and he starts practicing kink sex and becomes obsessed with Nikki. Meanwhile, Lisa feels out of place in the office, Kenneth helps her and they get close to each other, having a love affair and the disturbed Kenneth gets rid off the doll. When Lisa finds Nikki's brochure in the volume one of the manual, the world of the twisted Kenneth falls apart and Kenneth becomes completely deranged with tragic consequences.

"Love Object" is an excellent weird tale of loneliness, obsession and horror, with a great screenplay and direction and a potential cult-movie. The dark story has a touch of David Lynch inclusive with some bizarre characters, like Kenneth and the owner of the sex shop. Desmond Harrington has a stunning performance developing perfectly his deranged and scary character. The extremely gorgeous Melissa Sagemiller is also great in the role of the insecure temporary employee that feels uncomfortable in the company with her colleagues. The surprising conclusion is a plus in this highly recommended movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Olhos da Morte" ("Eyes of the Death")

Kenneth (Desmond Harrington) works as a technical writer--he creates user's manuals. He's good at his job but he has trouble emotionally connecting with others. At about the same time that Kenneth's boss, Novak (Rip Torn), hires an attractive temp assistant for him, Lisa (Melissa Sagemiller), Kenneth becomes obsessed with a lifelike sex doll named "Nikki". He gradually makes the doll appear as close as he can to Lisa. But when Lisa begins showing interest in him, it leads to complications and possibly disastrous consequences.

Writer/director Robert Parigi's Love Object is an exploration of various kinds of objectification, but in the wrapper of a psychological thriller/horror film. Although it is sourced in an actual object called "The Real Doll" (an expensive, life-like sex doll available via mail order/on the Internet), and it has filmic thematic precursors, from the good (Private Parts, 1972) to the not so good (Der Mann nebenan, aka A Demon in My View, 1991), as well as attitudinal/emotional precursors, ranging from Psycho (1960) to Boxing Helena (1993) to Office Space (1999), Parigi is much more tightly focused on objectification, not only when it comes to sex, but also as it imbues working life and to a small extent, private life, as well.

The first half hour of the film shows us Kenneth at his job. The office is bland and conformist, with white-collar employees sitting in similar cubicles as they crank out their soul-squelching work and desperately try to find anything to provide a spark of color or entertainment and help them get through their days. We can tell that Kenneth has been at it for a while, because he has the blankest look on his face. Parigi is showing us how this kind of work objectifies employees. They're just cogs in a wheel, alienated and alienating, chipping away at mostly meaningless crap, existing only insofar as they continue to feed the right objects to their fellow workers and the administrative machinery. (Can you tell I've worked one of those jobs before?) Once Lisa arrives, she's objectified as a tool to help production, only useful and existent as long as she fulfills that function. When she puts a kink into it by having an emotional outburst, she's threatened with exile. Emotions aren't allowed.

So it's no surprise, being socialized into such a work environment, that Kenneth fetishizes a literal object, "Nikki", which he often relates to via a user's manual on his computer. And it's no surprise that he transfers that conceptualization to Lisa. As the film progresses, Kenneth tries to make Lisa and Nikki more alike, sometimes working on one, sometimes the other. Long before they begin to unify, Kenneth shows signs that his alienation is leading to a loss of his rational faculties. He begins to believe that Nikki is alive, interacting with him and eventually threatening him. He later begins to conflate Lisa and Nikki while he's with Lisa. Obviously, this is a recipe for disaster, and what a delicious disaster Parigi gives us in the final section of the film.

Although relatively slow in the beginning, the pacing and suspense gradually intensify until the climax. The change is appropriate, as the film takes place during Kenneth's break with sanity. It's only slight quirks at the beginning, but by the end he's a full-blown psycho. That's not something that happens in the blink of an eye.

Parigi also works his theme of objectification into the residents of the apartment where Kenneth dwells. Even though they live together, sometimes right next door to each other, they think of one another more as functions. One person is the manager, another the cop. Kenneth, known as the "degenerate" to the cop, watches the manager (Udo Kier) fondling a woman in the hall, objectifying them as porno material (and there are also later scenes in a porno shop, a locale where objectification has long been an issue). The manager is shown at one point playing with dolls of his own--small porcelain figurines that he makes dance a waltz.

Of course, one need not think about these issues much to enjoy the film. Parigi has done a remarkable job making an independent, low budget artwork. It was shot on Super 16 and looks great. The production design is excellent (a real standout is when Kenneth is awarded an office of his own), and Parigi's direction is impeccable. You can easily enjoy the film from the thriller/horror aspect alone. On that end, the film is full of increasing tension, it's occasionally and effectively visceral, and it has a nicely surprising ending. Don't miss this one.

My skepticism was expecting a gender reversal of Child's Play.

After seeing the flick it struck me as somewhere near the realm of Secretary, ReAnimator & American Psycho. It throws a humorous light on professional / emotional duality & the creepy perversions generated by repressed emotions.

Shot in 18 days & under a million $ this film is an excellent example of how a quality story, well executed, can easily be more entertaining than a star studded formulaic attempt at a blockbuster for a fraction of the cost. Film studios could make & market hundreds of films like this for the cost of a single Waterworld or Matrix Sequel. Introducing a fresh crowd of talent to the public & a higher grade of story to bored audiences.

A visually tasteful & cleverly executed film.

Love Object received an incognito release a few years back, and this is unfortunate as what we have here is a film that takes a very basic idea (albeit one that I've not seen used before) and crafts and inventive and somewhat frightening little film out of it. The only film really similar to this that I can think of is Lucky McKee's oddball gem 'May', which seems to be gaining more and more fans all the time; and this makes Love Object's releasing all the more unfortunate, as this is a film that could definitely win itself a dedicated cult following. The film focuses on Kenneth Winslow - he's an everyday guy with an everyday sort of job at a place that prints instruction manuals. His life takes a turn one day when his co-workers introduce him to Nikki - a lifelike doll on sale on the internet for a whopping $10,000. He decides to buy the doll, and after becoming acquainted with it - quickly falls in love. However, he's also starting to get on with his lovely female co-worker...and this 'upsets' his $10,000 plastic love object, leading to the emergence of a strange love triangle.

Going into this film; I was worried that the plot might not be able to stretch the running time - but there's enough else going on to ensure that Love Object doesn't become boring. The production values are high considering that this obviously wasn't a big budget film, and the acting is also rather good. The central performance is delivered by a shy looking Desmond Harrington, and he has good chemistry with his female co-star, Melissa Sagemiller. To the cult fan, however, the most interesting performance in the movie comes from Udo Kier - and while he's not really given the opportunity to make a big mark on the film, it's always good to see him. Rip Torn also plays a part, and along with Kier; makes the movie more memorable. Director Robert Parigi gets the audience into the film because the people in it are largely very realistic; the leads aren't overly good/bad looking and they don't have unlikely jobs, so the film is easy to get on with for normal people who have never spent any time with a sex doll. The film seems like it should have a point...but if there is one, I couldn't detect it. "Don't have sex with a rubber doll" is about the best I can do on that front. However, the film is interesting throughout and ends with a good twist...so Love Object definitely comes recommended.

Oh, Kenneth, Kenneth, Kenneth (Desmond Harrington). What a loser. Hiding in the closet to listen to your neighbor have sex when the new girl (Melissa Sagemiller) is just as lonely as you. Step up there, boy, and get some action.

Kenneth decides to try something different. A $10,000 plastic doll. Yep, they are real (On sale at http://ultradolls.com/).

Kenneth's relationship with the doll reflects his real feeling for Lisa (Sagemiller), and soon he has enough nerve to make a move. But, as things progress with Lisa, he starts imagining that his doll is jealous and, after a bad night with Lisa, he takes a drastic and horrible step.

This is when things gets really weird, and exciting at the same time. He snaps completely and just when we think he is toast, he manages to have heaven intervene and save him. I can't say more than that without giving away the plot, but it certainly was well done.

Rip Torn was great as his boss, and Udo Kier played an excellent role.

Looking for more from first time writer/director Robert Parigi.