Obsessed

A throwback to the so-called yuppie-in-peril suspense thrillers that were popular in the late 1980s/early 1990s, Obsessed owes a lot to Fatal Attraction in particular. Idris Elba (The Wire) is Derek, a businessman who seems to be on the fast track to success. He's wealthy, happily married and the proud father to a one-year-old baby boy. Enter Lisa (Ali Larter), a skinny blonde with get-ahead eyes and enough brains to back it up. Initially Derek doesn't mind her flirtatiousness, and to make things a little more piquant, his wife, Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles), was his secretary too, before he married her. When things go wrong, Lisa quits before he can fire her, but somehow she's got it into her head that he's in love with her. The slow build-up gives us ample time to ponder just how irrational this obsession is. Larter (from TV's Heroes) can't do much to make Lisa's shifts from super-competence to super-insanity remotely believable. The movie further blunts its already dull edge. Derek may be less than totally frank with his wife, but when all is said and done, he has precious little to be ashamed of - less than his wife imagines. The director Steve Shill also comes from TV - Dexter and The Tudors, among many others - but he doesn't do anything to elevate this tedious, predictable script.