Psychotron dropped us a line regarding his sneak-peak of OBSESSION!

[Tessa]

Psychotron dropped us a line regarding his sneak-peak of OBSESSION!
Josh Hartnett continues to impress me with his acting range. I'm serious.
Since first spotting him in excellent THE VIRGIN SUICIDES I thought this guy could be something. Then he started taking fluff "hunk" roles in trash films like PEARL HARBOR and the god-awful 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS. Mixed into those travesties were great films like BLACK HAWK DOWN and "O", although I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority in liking the OTHELLO remake. HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE, while not a great film, showed that Josh could hold is own opposite a Hollywood legend such as Harisson Ford as well as reveal a comedic side to the young actor. It has been my hope that Hartnett would do more edgy material in the future, and leave the hunk stuff behind.
Josh's latest cinematic offering is entitled OBSESSION, formerly titled THE APARTMENT and WICKER PARK. It is an English-language remake of the 1996 French thriller, L'APPARTMENT, which won a few of film festival awards back in 96. Written by Brandon Boyce (APT PUPIL, one of my favorite films), Yahoo movies claims OBSESSION is the story of a man obsessed with a woman he sees in a cafe, believing her to be his long-lost love. He follows her home to her apartment, where he waits for her, going so far as to put his engagement on hold. His search soon sends him down a dangerous path...
Enough with the synopsis, here's Psychotron with the skinny:
Yesterday, I got the chance to see a movie titled "Obsessed" starring Josh Hartnett.
As far as I know, it won't be out until sometime next year.
I didn't know a single thing about this movie prior to seeing it. Just a blurb in the back of the invitation I didn't notice until I was in line. I did some research and rather than typing all that info, here is a link to the IMDB page for this movie.
Go read it and then come back!
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0324554
I will try to make this review as spoiler free as possible, as I feel this movie is better seen with as little info as possible. Having said that, turns out this movie is a remake of a 1996 french movie titled "L'Appartement", so I'm assuming that if you have seen this french film, then you pretty much know what "Obsessed" is about. I didn't.
The theater goes dark and the movie begins immediately. We see Hartnett's character (Matthew) trying to choose an engagement ring. The jeweler is explaining to him the different qualities and characteristics of various rings. Cool little scene which at the end, makes a lot of sense as to what we are about to see.
We then see Matthew making his way to a fancy restaurant for some business meeting. He runs into Luke (Matthew Lillard), an old friend he apparently has not talked to in a while. Inside the restaurant, we meet Matthew's fiancé. We also begin to notice that Matthew does not seem to be all that into her. Matt is supposed to take a business trip to China although he doesn't seem to be exited about that either. When Matt needs to make a phone call, he makes his way to the phone booth inside the restaurant and this is when the movie takes off. Turns out Matt recognizes the voice of the girl using the phone. Through the first of MANY flashbacks in the movie, we see the girls face. Turns out she's an old lover that Matt has been trying to locate for quite some time now. At this point the movie becomes about Matt's obsession with finding this woman again and how far he will go, and has gone in the past, to find her. This is as far as I will go describing the movie, as I feel it's very hard to describe the rest without going into some major spoilers.
Please be warned that from here on there are possible SPOILERS. "Obsessed" is a very good movie filled with three great characters and one that needs some work. The movie makes use of a lot of flashbacks that are very reminiscent of "Memento", as each flashback takes us further into the past. The only problem I had with the use of flashbacks is that at times I didn't notice where the flashback ended and I kept thinking the scene was still a flashback when it wasn't. It might just be me though.
The characters are great for the most part. Josh Hartnett does a great job. I'm not much of an actor/ actress analyst. I get so into the movies, I hardly notice things some others might. However, there is something about Hartnett. He is so very different than in "Pearl Harbor" and "Black Hawk Down". The character of Matt fits him like a glove. His look, his mannerisms, everything. Hard to believe that this role was meant for other actors, including the guy from Fast & the Furious (Not Diesel!), because Hartnett is great in this role.
Matt and Luke have great chemistry onscreen. Their relationship Might remind me you of one of your friendships. Luke is a great character. He is silly and goofy in an innocent sort of way. Ultimately you see he is caught in the middle of something he never has a clue is going on. This leads to some situations that are very funny, in a creepy sort of way. There is another character. Her name is Alex and she is played wonderfully by Rose Byrne (God I want her!). In my opinion, she is the best character in the movie. Sweet, misguided, lonely, and confused is the best way I can define her. Her actions are creepy to the core, but ultimately you realize that even though you might think she is a psycho, she really is not evil at all, just very, very misguided. Lastly, we have Lisa (Diane Kruger), Matt's object of obsession. She is the character that needs more work. She offers nothing other than being Matt's old lover. That is it. Maybe it's the story, maybe it's the character, maybe it's the actress. I really can't say. She needs more depth. It probably hurt the character that she is involved in a side story line that turns out, has NOTHING to do with the movie whatsoever. In fact, I believe this side story is there simply to KEEP YOUR ATTENTION away from the main story line (cheaters!). That is all I will say about that. I know you might be thinking "Why is this movie good when a main character is supposedly so shallow?" To that I can only say, watch the movie and you
will understand why. I know, I know. A cop out answer if I ever heard any.
If the character of Lisa gets a little bit deeper, it might push this movie into the "great" category. The others characters only need minor changes, if any. The subject of obsession is handled pretty well. In the end, you might learn that if instead of obsessing (following/spying) over someone you simply talk to them, you'll save yourself a hell of a lot of trouble.
- Psychotron
There you have it! Sounds like with a little tweaking, OBSESSED could become a "great" film!
Thanx Pyschotron for the awesome EARLY review!

thanks tessa. most of us have read it a long time ago (as you can see from the comments at the bottom) and it totally made everyone excited for the movie.
[img]smile.gif[/img] Film Rotation

I don't think i read that the whole way through before. Sounds interesting, its great that Josh is said to fit the character so well and be a good actor, but 40 dyas IMO was a great film wots the stupid person on about!
thanx Tessa [img]graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

if this movie is great, why do they just release it? [img]graemlins/flame.gif[/img]
Thanx for the article!

I'm guessing they don't want the release to coincide with some other big movie, or they wanna tempt us Josh fans :D

[joshartnettfan]

If only we could see what the official poster will look like! :(

thanks Tessa for posting it! [img]smile.gif[/img]