N-Secure is billed on Amazon as some sort of psychological character study of how a man can go from the pinnacle of success into the bowels of hell, simply because he isn't secure with himself and the people around him.
Well, that's not quite accurate...it's really more about an obsessive controlling psychopath and his attempt to enslave virtually everyone around him into a "serve me or die" pact. What starts as an intriguing character study of an obviously emotionally bruised martinet devolves into an African American take on "the female imprisoned" ala Jennifer Lopez's "Enough," only that film was played much broader and almost for sheer action-adventure adrenaline. N-Secure never achieves that kind of driving, operatic rhythm, and by the end, you could swear you're watching a Lifetime movie.
This film had four screenwriters. That's about two too many in most cases, and it definitely shows here. The film is littered with stray, odd scenes that are intriguing in that they illuminate bits of David's shattered psyche, but then doesn't do anything with them. For instance, early on we meet a Marine buddy of David's who appears to only be in the movie as a sounding board for an exposition on David's combative resentful relationship with this father. Another scene shows his current girlfriend seeking help from a therapist who seems to understand how dangerous David is. Neither of these scenes pan out or add anything to the movie in the long run, they may as well have been cut.
Cordell Moore, who plays David, comes across as such an over-the-top maniac it's hard to feel any sympathy for him and it makes it even more implausible when his latest squeeze Tina (Denise Boutte) stays with him through repeated abusive episodes --- David isn't just a physical abuser, he's downright nasty to be around most of the time, even when he's showering her with gifts.
The real problem, though, lies with director David Matthews. The film has a lot of pacing problems, never balancing the tension between David's current world with the paternity subplot helmed thanklessly by the normally very good Essence Atkins. There are times you wonder if one of the plots has just been dropped. Yes, this is a script problem but the director seems to not have had much input into this, or not cared. Unfortunately, at times, the whole thing seems a bit too much like a "hey-I-got-a-pile-of-money-to-blow-on-a-movie" experiment. It seems clotted with family and friends, many of whom can't act at all and who obviously are playing a "type:" Tempest Bledsoe (yes, THAT Tempest Bledsoe) and Thomas Miles as Harold (WHAT does this guy DO at David's office...is he doing a Jimmie Walker impersonation or is he just the Jive A** court jester?).
It's too bad because this had some very interesting seeds of an intense character drama. But it's hard to make films like that. It's much easier to churn out formulaic psycho-husband movies, like this one. It makes Tyler Perry's pseudo dramatics almost seem professional by comparison.
