Obsessed (2009 film)
Obsessed is a 2009 American psychological thriller film directed by Steve Shill and written by David Loughery. Starring Idris Elba, Beyoncé, and Ali Larter, the film follows Lisa Sheridan (Larter), an office temp who develops unrequited feelings for her boss, Derek Charles (Elba), and repeatedly attempts to seduce him. Derek's wife, Sharon (Beyoncé), learns of Lisa's escalating behavior and suspects her husband is having an affair.
Obsessed
Ken Seng
Paul Seydor
- April 23, 2009 (School of Visual Arts)
- April 24, 2009 (United States)
108 minutes[1]
United States
English
$20 million[2]
$73.8 million[2]
Obsessed premiered at the School of Visual Arts on April 23, 2009, and was theatrically released in the United States the following day. The film received largely negative reviews from critics, who criticized the absence of an explanation for Lisa's obsession with Derek, failure to explore the potential theme of interracial conflict between Lisa and the Charles family, and the fact that Derek did not yield to Lisa's seduction. It also drew unfavorable comparisons to Fatal Attraction (1987), while the climactic fight scene between Beyoncé and Larter was widely praised, winning the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. Despite the critical reception, the film was a modest success at the box office, grossing $73.8 million against its $20 million budget.[2]
Plot[edit]
Derek Charles works for a finance company and lives with his wife Sharon and their two-year-old son Kyle. While he is at work, he is friendly to a temp, Lisa Sheridan. Believing Derek was flirting with her, she tries to seduce him.
Although Derek repeatedly rejects her, Lisa continues to pursue him, and makes sexual advances toward him at the office Christmas party. Later, she follows him to his car and flashes him until he forces her out of his car. Derek intends to report Lisa to human resources, but learns that she has quit her job.
Thinking that Lisa has given up, Derek is nervous when he receives flirtatious emails from her. He and his workmates visit a resort for a conference, where she shows up. When he confronts her, she spikes his drink. Incapacitated, she then follows him into his hotel room.
Derek confronts Lisa again the following day, and hours later discovers her lying naked in his bed after attempting suicide, and calls for an ambulance. After repeated attempts to reach him on his phone, Sharon finds him at the hospital and suspects that he and Lisa had an affair, as Lisa claims.
Detective Monica Reese questions Derek's fidelity to Sharon, but soon becomes skeptical of Lisa's claims due to inconsistencies in her story. Refusing to believe Derek, Sharon kicks him out of their house, and he moves into a separate apartment.
Three months later, Derek and Sharon reconcile over a birthday dinner. While they are out, Lisa tricks the babysitter Samantha into letting her into the house under the pretense of being one of Sharon's friends delivering a gift.
When Derek and Sharon return home from dinner, they discover that Lisa has been in their house and taken Kyle. He goes to his car with the intent to pursue her, only to find Kyle is safely sitting in the back seat. He and Sharon immediately take Kyle to the hospital for a check-up.
When Derek and Sharon return home, they find Lisa has trashed their bedroom and removed Sharon's face from their family portrait. Sharon leaves a threatening voice message on Lisa's phone, and she and Derek set up a home alarm system. Lisa learns that Derek and Sharon will be going out of town for a few days, with her leaving in the afternoon and him the next day. While Sharon is on her way to pick up Kyle, she realizes she forgot to set the alarm system so returns home.
Lisa breaks into the Charles' house and decorates the master bed with rose petals. While setting the alarm, Sharon hears the sound of a champagne cork pop. Going up the stairs, she confronts Lisa, who then tries to convince Sharon that she and Derek are having an affair.
However, Sharon sees through Lisa’s lie and tells her that she is going to call the police. Lisa tries to stop her and suggests they sit down and talk but an angered Sharon pushes her to the floor and they engage in a physical altercation.
When Derek calls the home phone, Lisa answers, prompting him to alert Detective Reese as he rushes home. Sharon chases Lisa to the attic and leads her to a weak spot in the attic floor, where she falls through. When Sharon tries to help Lisa from falling all the way she reaches out her hand to her, but Lisa tries to pull Sharon down with her instead. Sharon pries Lisa off of her arm, causing her to grab hold of the chandelier she falls onto.
The chandelier loosens and Lisa falls onto the glass table below, and is killed when the chandelier falls from the ceiling and crushes her. Detective Reese arrives as Sharon comes out of the house and embraces Derek. The detective enters their house to investigate.
Release[edit]
Box office[edit]
Obsessed premiered at the School of Visual Arts, New York City on April 23, 2009,[17] and opened at US cinemas the following day.[18] The film began showing in the United Kingdom on May 29, 2009.[19] It was screened at 2,514 theaters and grossed $11,209,297 on its opening day of April 24, 2009;[20] it ended its opening weekend at the top of the box office, with gross revenue of $28,612,730 in those three days,[21][22] and became the second-biggest opening weekend for a Screen Gems film ever.[23] The film spent its entire first week of release at number one and grossed $34,802,334, however it slipped to number three the following week due to the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.[22][24]
Obsessed closed in US cinemas on June 14, 2009, having grossed $68,261,644 domestically in its eight weeks of availability, which made up 92.5% of its gross worldwide takings. Outside the US, the film grossed an additional $5,568,696, bringing its total gross box office revenue to $73,830,340.[2] The top performing international territory was Spain, with an opening weekend of $646,760 and a final total of 1,914,828, followed by the United Kingdom with a total of $854,917, Germany with $529,794, and the region of Southern Africa with $343,932.[2]
Critical reception[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 19% based on 85 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "The inevitable Fatal Attraction comparisons aside, Obsessed is a generic, toothless thriller both instantly predictable and instantly forgettable."[18] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 25 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[25] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[26]
A common complaint about the film was that, unlike most "deranged stalker"-themed films, Obsessed did not explain why Lisa was so determined to seduce Derek, who showed no interest in her at all.[27] Variety's John Anderson and The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt criticized Lisa's lack of motive and backstory.[3] Stella Papamichael of Digital Spy called the film predictable and blamed the well-defined morality of the characters. She wrote, "Unlike the bunny-boiling '80s classic Fatal Attraction, the characters are drawn in 2D. They are either good or bad, and there is absolutely no attempt to understand what drives them either way."[28] Liz Braun from Jam! lambasted the lack of character development in Obsessed and called it "a chemistry-free movie".[29] Jason McKiernan of Filmcritic.com described the film as "so steeped in the formula of the psycho-sexual suspense flick that it works as both a thriller and a comedy" and "very good trash".[30]
Reviewers also noted that the potential for interracial conflict remained unexplored; Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman wrote, "The movie wants to tease us with intimations of a steamy biracial liaison; it just doesn't want to actually go there."[31] Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe was disappointed that "Obsessed basically plays it safe. The obvious racial buttons are never pushed".[32] Greg Quill from the Toronto Star agreed, and wrote that Shill and Loughery "stripped the drama of its potentially gripping – and obvious – racial overtones".[33] However, Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out that having the two female roles of differing races "creates racial tension", and noted similarities to "the racially charged" Lakeview Terrace (2008), which Loughery also wrote.[34] Braun was of the impression that a well-written script was replaced by the film's "racial politics".[29] When Derek confronts Lisa at the business conference, she threatens him with a sexual harassment complaint; Sady Doyle from The Guardian wrote that this alludes to "the history of black men being lynched for their perceived threat to white women".[15] Doyle pointed out that historically white women are more revered for their beauty than black women, which is a side theme of the fight between Sharon and Lisa.[15] Melissa Anderson of LA Weekly suggested that awkwardness of the interracial relationship of Derek and Lisa as a reason why the filmmakers did not have the two characters partake in any sexual activity.[35]