The Obsession Book Review

[Elfreda Barrick]

BrianDe Palma's "Obsession" is an overwrought melodrama, and that's what I like best about it. There's no doing this sort of thing halfway, and De Palma knows it: We get gloomy vistas down wet Italian streets, and characters running toward each other in slow motion, and low-angle shots of tombs, and romantic music breaking suddenly into discordant warnings, and -- best of all -- a surprise ending which manages at the same time to be totally implausible and totally satisfying.

The movie opens in New Orleans at a party celebrating a 10th wedding anniversary: Michael and Elizabeth Courtland are still deeply in love, so right away we know they're in trouble. A butler moves through the room with drinks on a tray, and as he walks toward the camera his jacket hitches up and we get a huge close-up of a gun tucked into his belt. There's ominous music on the soundtrack and no wonder -- Michael's wife and daughter are about to be kidnapped.

A ransom note demands $500,000, but Courtland allows himself to be talked into a harebrained scheme by the police. They spike the money with a little radio transmitter and follow the signals back to the house where the kidnappers are holed up. There's a confused escape, the police chase the getaway car, it crashes into a gasoline truck and in the resulting explosion, the wife and daughter are killed. At least that's what Michael Courtland believes for 18 long years, during which he erects an enormous monument in an otherwise empty cemetery.

But then, during a business trip to Italy, he visits the church in Florence where he first met his wife. And there on a scaffold, mixing some paint and helping with a restoration project, is his wife! She looks exactly the same as she did 18 years ago. There is a courtship, a romance, plans for marriage and a return to New Orleans. And then Paul Schrader's screenplay starts a series of incredible double-reverses and shocking revelations, which of course it wouldn't be fair for me to reveal.

The ending, as I've suggested, is totally implausible -- we can think of at least a dozen questions in the last five minutes alone -- but who cares? De Palma and Schrader, and Bernard Herrmann with his beautifully overdone music, and Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold with their mutual obsession, are all playing this material as broadly as possible. This is a 1940s melodrama out of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater by way of a gothic novel. If you want realism, go to another movie.

Material like this needs a certain tone, and De Palma finds it. He starts with two of the most romantically decadent cities on earth (New Orleans and Florence - although Venice would have been better), and then he lets his sound track drip with portentous music and his characters roam through deserted and vaguely menacing locations. The photography, by Vilmos Zsigmond, is darkly, richly sinister: as two men sit talking in a Florentine cafe, the camera changes focus as it sweeps from one to the other so that we're forced to look beyond them into a square and wonder who we'll see there.

Robertson's first visit to the church, in which the camera's deep focus makes him seem to climb those stairs forever, is another nicely disturbing visual moment. And, in a movie that owes a lot to the Hitchcock style, there are a few well-chosen exact quotations from the Master (as when Genevieve Bujold tells the housekeeper: "There's a door upstairs that's locked. Where is the key?" And then . . . well, You know how these things develop.)

The movie's been criticized as implausible and unsubtle, but that's exactly missing the point. Of course the ending is out of a lurid novel, and of course the music edges toward hysteria, and of course Robertson goes from mad to worse (wouldn't you, if you saw a ghost?). I don't just like movies like this; I relish them. Sometimes overwrought excess can be its own reward. If "Obsession" had been even a little more subtle, had made even a little more sense on some boring logical plane, it wouldn't have worked at all.

Kaetrin started reading romance as a teen and then took a long break, detouring into fantasy and thrillers. She returned to romance in 2008 and has been blogging since 2010. She reads contemporary, historical, a little paranormal, urban fantasy and romantic suspense, as well as erotic romance and more recently, new adult. She loves angsty books, funny books, long books and short books. The only thing mandatory is the HEA. Favourite authors include Mary Balogh, Susanna Kearsley, Joanna Bourne, Tammara Webber, Kristen Ashley, Shannon Stacey, Sarah Mayberry, JD Robb/Nora Roberts, KA Mitchell, Marie Sexton, Patricia Briggs, Ilona Andrews, just to name a few. You can find her on Twitter: @kaetrin67.

@Imani: I had a similar experience reading NR. Too many were retreads, and I also grew disenchanted with the trilogies. I generally have liked her romantic suspense books, and Hidden Riches is one of my all-time favorite romances.

We do not purchase all the books we review here. Some we receive from the authors, some we receive from the publisher, and some we receive through a third party service like Net Galley. Some books we purchase ourselves. Login

Anyone who has read my reviews before knows that I have a real soft spot in my heart for storytelling in games, and this is probably the most impressive accomplishment in Obsession. Dan has made no secret that he wanted Obsession to evoke the setting Downton Abbey with a hint of Jane Austen. Its a bold choice for sure, seeing as most games set in 19th Century England are concerned with either murder or industry. Sadly (or not) there is no murder or industrial grime to speak of but there is plenty of repressed sexual tension and passive aggressive gendered gamesmanship. This is after all a game all about manipulating a pair of wealthy orphans so that your children can get into their pantaloons. There is nothing creepy about that whatsoever.

For better or for worse, Obsession is very much a game founded in reality. The setting is quite heavily colored in its patriarchal and misogynistic setting. There are no people of color except for the occasional person of Scottish or Welsh decent. There is a very real undertone of sexual politics at play in Obsession. If I had to fault Obsession for anything it would be that the game does have a Jane Austen inspired cavalier attitude towards the fiercely oppressive historical setting. I think its fair to say that Obsession is a romanticized depiction of the wealthy elite in England, just try not to dwell on how these families became wealthy in the first place.

Read on to learn how to reap the benefits to your body from this overall excellent fitness program (and see some surprising Before and After pictures), while avoiding the dangers that lurk within. Note that this article contains affiliate links which provide a small commission to me at no cost to you if you choose to purchase. Enjoy!

In other words, these unique moves are worthwhile because they are hitting neglected areas, but are highly challenging while those puny hidden muscles are being built. The hardest moves are often the ones you need the most!

Over the months I did the program, however, I became expert at listening to my body to decide if I needed to alter my form, or fully change the exercise to keep my knees safe. What surprised me was that I WAS able to do more of these moves than I thought, as long as I moved slowly and kept the angles perfect.

Honestly, I found it much easier to use baby burp cloths on an uncarpeted floor than to use sliders, but your mileage may vary. I work out in just compression socks (without shoes), so sliders probably work better paired with sneakers than they did for my stocking feet!

This cushioning is a MUST, especially with all the ab and kneeling exercises in the program. I have this one and love it. I also have a wider pad (interlocking foam puzzle pieces) that goes under it and stretches further out, which is key because some of the moves need more space. You can see it in action in the video.

On days when I felt hungry before a workout, I find that these protein bars give me energy to exercise without causing cramps or too much fullness. That brand (Shaklee) is a little more expensive, but my whole family swears by it, and the protein quality is worth the price.

1) Total Body Core: An hour of full body movements using both weights and resistance loops. I enjoyed the moves in this series, though they become increasingly complex and compounded as the program goes on.

I will highlight one big nutrition thing, though: I quit drinking alcohol around the same time I started this program, and noticed a major positive difference in my body shape and function as a result. Teetotaling might be worth a shot for you to try, too, even if just for a short time.

3. Autumn is excellent at cueing. She never fails to suggest the weight amount or to explain the move and timing. This is a contrast to other programs, which often forget these reminders and leave me scrambling to guess dumbbell size.

The new Beachbody program, #mbf "Muscle Burns Fat" with Megan Davies is super fun, featuring a cordless jump rope, music, and just 30 minutes a day for three weeks, 7 days a week. If you're on the fence between "80DO" and #mbf, I'd suggest starting with "Muscle Burns Fat" because it's so engaging, and do Autumn's program after.

Though the Original DVD-style version of Autumn's "21 Day Fix" was filmed in 2014 before "80 Day Obsession," the more popular "Real Time" version was filmed in 2019 after "80DO," and addresses some of the issues with the latter program. "21DF" takes much less time (30 minutes a day for three weeks), and features far simpler moves with clear modifications to reduce risk of injury. The "21DF" structure is more predictable than that of "80DO," and has 30 second breaks between moves rather than the erratic long pauses in "80 Day Obsession." Despite these perks, however, if you really want a full body transformation and are willing to put in the longer time commitment, "80 Day Obsession" yields clearer results than "21 Day Fix."

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