Obsession

The majority of this movie is, in my opinion, average. The premise is as old as the farm equipment occupying the setting, and Brad Dourif as the kindly older man who takes to Mekhi Phifer's character, Sonny, after Sonny rescues him from a robbery is the only real bright spot. As a longtime fan of Dourif's work, it's always refreshing and gratifying to see him play a warm(er) character instead of a serial killer, wily racist, or out-of-this-world weirdo -- not to take anything away from his portrayal of said archetypes, lol. He really does deserve better offers -- the man is a Golden Globe winner/Oscar nominee/Emmy nominee, for Pete's sake.

Mekhi Phifer, who is usually a fine actor, doesn't fare all that well here with the subpar material. There's so little chemistry between him and Elika Portnoy -- who delivers a sleepy and largely ineffectual performance as the stock "hot wife" character -- that their (ample) sex scenes quickly become uncomfortable to watch. We're supposed care about and root for them, but there's nothing there to get invested in, which is a death knell for stories like this. The cashier, who delivers but a single line to Larissa, gives the second-best performance in the film. That should tell you everything.

Well, almost everything.

The tiny twist 3/4 of the way through is mildly piquing, as is the big twist at the end. To be honest, I was genuinely taken aback and pleased, from a darkly humorous point of view, about where we ended up and why.

The film is such a mixed bag, I don't know if I can safely recommend it or not. It's only 90 minutes, but many of those minutes are not terribly enjoyable. Still, Brad Dourif and the ending make this a touch above average for me -- a 5.5/10. Yet I'm only rating it a 5 overall because it IS a painful slog to get through the middle to get to the halfway decent ending.

I wished I liked it more but unfortunately Obsession isn't that big of a deal. The first half is slow and pretty boring but you keep watching it in the hope it gets better. But it's the exact opposite that happened for the second half. The story gets ridiculous, just like they had no time enough to develop the story correctly. The crime solving scenes are just laughable, I guess we have a new Sherlock Holmes that can figure out the whole thing by watching the crime scene for one second. The acting is also below average. The only good thing about Obsession is the end that I didn't see coming but for that I had to endure the rest of this boring movie.

Not understanding the poor reviews. I thought it was pretty good. The acting was good, in my opinion. I thought the Russian woman was attractive, and both the males played their roles decently. The movie kept me going, and the ending threw me off. I also thought the police officers played their roles very realistically.

My only complaint was that the motivations of the characters (both the boyfriend and, at the end, the woman) to do what they did wasn't really established enough. But still, the plot was good enough to keep you interested.

All in all, it was an enjoyable movie, if you keep your expectations in check. Not nearly as bad as some of the reviewers state here.

I watched this movie because Mekhi Phifer, who is one of my favorite Actors, stars. This movie will truly make you think about a lot of things in relationships and how people can so easily be lied to and get played. The low ratings given for this movie are not justified. Trust me when I tell you, it's worth-a-watch!

I understand that some of you hate this movie, and that's fair. I beg you to reconsider your "baaaadd actinggggggg!!!" Comments. A film that isn't up to par with viewers expectations shouldn't be blamed on acting alone. You can surely blame writers and directors too for poor execution by the actors. If someone gave you a trash bag to wear, how could you expect to win a fashion show? Point being, Mekhi can act. Period. Stop blaming actors when it's convenient. Mekhi was the glue that kept this slow moving movie worth while.