OBSESSED
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
98 min., not rated, Drama/Suspence, 1992, Made-for-television Director: Jonathan Sanger Cast: Shannen Doherty, William Devane, Clare Carey, James Handy, Lois Chiles, Lisa Ann Poggi, Albert Stratton
First there was the nanny from hell (THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE), then the lesbian icepick murderer (BASIC INSTINCT), followed by the psycho roommate (SINGLE WHITE FEMALE), and now there is a deranged girlfriend. Shannen Doherty meets older William Devane when she is looking at his boat. Doherty and Devane become lovers, but she gets too obsessive and he calls the relationship off. She can't handle that and wants to pay him back.
OBSESSED was made for the ABC television network, and is rather good. It isn't as good as the other films listed above, but is still worth trying to see, although some people may be sick of psycho films and just want to skip this one. I wouldn't hunt too hard for this film, it will probably be on repeats in one to three years and you can see it then if you are still interested. On a scale of zero to five, I give OBSESSED a four.
The actors in OBSESSED do a good job, although sometimes it shows that they are television actors. Shannen Doherty sometimes gets a little carried away with her role and sometimes William Devane doesn't seem to put enough into his. But for the most part they carry the film successfully. The major problem that I found with the film is that I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters. William Devane's character was a complete jerk and deserved what came to him. On the other hand, Shannen Doherty's character was a complete bitch and also deserved what came to her.
The film could have been written a little better. In some parts it seemed to plod along and other parts looked like they had been put in to fill up time. The advertisements for this film made it out to be a lot more than it was, which is unfortunate because probably many people saw this film expecting something else and ended up sorely disappointed. Maybe people should lay off the psycho films until 1993, because there has been a great amount in the theaters recently, and they are starting to come to home video (THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE is already out and BASIC INSTINCT is coming soon). At least this film is a break from the "standard television films" and this may mark the start of more films like it.
-------- Ken Johnson blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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