Summary
Obsession’s production quality, despite its low budget, and its acting are top-notch, though the story’s extremism was a little weird to me, and I found the main character unlikeable.
Plot: Music store employee “Bear” (Michael Johnston) uses a “One Wish Willow” to wish his friend Nikki (Inde Navarrette) would love him more than anyone else in the world, which leads to disastrous consequences.
Review: Generally, I find that if a movie is going to come out of nowhere and be a giant at the box office, it’s a horror movie. Horror movies can be exceptionally quality on low budgets, are often a staple of the “date” crowd, and have so many genre crossovers and sub-genres that it just takes a clever idea and a good cast to strike a particular chord with an audience. For this year, Obsession, a movie that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been a box office and critical darling, is that film.
A simple narrative that embodies the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Obsession is a modern-day monkey’s paw fable, a story about how selfish fantasies and cowardly actions can have such profoundly dire consequences. It is ultimately effective, driving home its point and, in the case of two of the main four characters, punishing them for their selfishness. It is a satisfyingly bleak narrative, with no unbelievable, fantastical conclusion to exonerate those who don’t deserve it.
The fact that this movie was filmed on only a $750,000 budget speaks to the power of effective storytelling. The locations and costumes are minimalist and not ridiculously opulent – you don’t have people earning minimum wage living in lavish apartments or wearing upscale clothing. The score is the usual disappointment of modern movies, but the locations, filming, and location value are all impressive. This movie makes the most of what it has. Only a couple of violent scenes are edited a little strangely, I assume, to hide the fact that the production just didn’t have much money.
The acting is great. This is considered Inde Navarrette’s “breakout” role, and it’s easy to see why – she carries the movie’s emotional weight as the obsessed, volatile Nikki. What happens to her is tragic and unwarranted. Michael Johnston is solid as the male protagonist and almost makes you feel sorry for his character as he finally obtains what he dearly wished for, only to realize it was a fool’s wish. Megan Lawless is deceptively strong and sympathetic as Sarah, the girl who genuinely likes Bear without him resorting to tricks. Cooper Tomlinson is obnoxious, but oddly relatable as Bear’s friend, Ian.
The movie is not without its warts. Nikki’s descent into madness is extremely fast, and she disintegrates to a degree that defies belief. It led me to wonder if she already wasn’t suffering from a mental disorder and the wish pushed her over the edge. The movie has her move oddly at times, almost suggesting she’s demonically possessed – this all took me out of the movie and turned what could have been a subtle, creepy story into an overblown farce. I don’t know if it was the filmmaker’s intention, but I found myself laughing at times at how insane Nikki was acting.
Then, there’s Bear. I think the thrust of this movie is that you need to sympathize with him to some degree, to feel sorry that he had to resort to magic to make a girl like him, because he was too afraid to reveal his emotions for fear of rejection. I guess, to some degree, it works, but I just found myself completely unsympathetic toward him. His selfishness and fear of rejection essentially destroy Nikki. Her crime was not feeling the same way about him as he did about her. In that context, it’s very difficult for me to feel that everything he got was what he deserved. If that was the writer’s intention, then great; but it diminishes the impact of what he’s experiencing throughout the film.
So, that’s Obsession. Is it a good movie? Yes. Is it a movie that deserves to make over $400 million? Well…I think there’s a crowd for this movie that will definitely think it is one of the best films ever made. I’m not in that crowd. I appreciate the acting and what the movie was going for. For me, it’s a solid movie, and I’m glad I watched it. I don’t have a desire to repeat the viewing, however.