Obsessed
2009 · United States · 108 min
- Director
- Steve Shill
- Screenplay
- David Loughery
- Producer
- Will Packer
- Music
- James Dooley
- Cinematography
- Ken Seng
- Editing
- Paul Seydor
- Production company
- Screen Gems, Rainforest Films
Cast
What it is about
Derek Charles is a successful finance professional who has just earned a major promotion. He lives with his wife, Sharon, and their young son in a newly purchased house that seems to complete an orderly, happy life. Everything shifts when he meets Lisa, a friendly and lively temp at his office, who reads his polite manner as romantic interest. What starts as an awkward flirtation becomes a pursuit that grows stronger with each refusal. The film examines how a family responds when a no is not enough to stop someone.
How it was made
The idea came from Clint Culpepper, president of Screen Gems, and David Loughery wrote the screenplay, drawing basic inspiration from the stalker thriller Fatal Attraction (1987). Producer Will Packer signed on after reading the script, and director Steve Shill joined after learning that Beyoncé was attached. Her agent suggested her for the role of Sharon, and the producers felt no one else could play it. It was her first non-singing part, and although she had never performed a fight scene, she learned the choreography quickly, which she found familiar from dance. Filming took place over the summer of 2008 on a budget of 20 million dollars. Loughery built Lisa as someone who genuinely believes she is in love, not a conventional villain, and her backstory was deliberately left out to keep her unsettling.
Reception and legacy
Critics were largely hostile, with a 19 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average of 25 out of 100 on Metacritic. Reviewers faulted the film for never explaining Lisa's fixation and for drawing unflattering comparisons to Fatal Attraction. The climactic fight between Beyoncé and Ali Larter, however, won praise and earned an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight at the 2010 ceremony. Commercially it was a modest hit, with worldwide earnings usually cited around 72 million dollars against a 20 million dollar budget.
Stills
Trailer
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Trivia
A first role without music
Producer Will Packer said it was the first time Beyoncé played a character who was not a singer, and the film does not focus on the music industry.
Choreographed fight
Beyoncé had never filmed a fight, but she found the scenes close to dance choreography. The final fight between Sharon and Lisa was shot over one week.
A racial theme left unexplored
Idris Elba noted that the Black and white dimension of the story is never raised in the film, and that the studio chose not to make it an issue.
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