Written by Kiara Co
Thrillers for the most part are chilling and intriguing. Netflix recently released a thriller movie called Secret Obsession with Brenda Song as the lead and it seems the psychological Lifetime movie vibe never gets old.
Although this movie strongly resembles the movie, Before I Go To Sleep, which stars Nicole Kidman as the lead, this movie still deserves a chance. However, while watching the trailer, you already know what will happen, especially since the plot and storyline are unoriginal a nothing about this movie stood out either from the audience’s point of view.
That being said, this movie was not terrible, but it was boring and dry in terms of a thriller film. As a thriller, it was slow paced and lacked of depth with a flat storyline and characters.
This movie reminded many viewers of the Netflix series, You, although Secret Obsession somehow had a creepier concept as the intention is worse compared to the series. In this movie, the “fake” husband (played by Mike Vogel) is much more violent and obsessed with Jennifer.
Throughout the movie, you root for Jennifer and you feel bad and pity her for the situation she has to deal with. You see her discover everything by herself due to false information through her fake husband and tormented by Russell. With the condition she is in, Jennifer is not able to fully recover as quickly because she was trapped in a house feeling uncomfortable. However, at the end of the movie, you’re satisfied that at least Jennifer is at peace and seems to overcome the trauma.
You also find yourself somewhat rooting for Detective Frank Page (Dennis Haysbert) as you hope that he gets to save Jennifer and figure everything else out. Gladly though at least this detective was a good one and willing to dig deep to find out the truth to help. At the end, Page does save Jennifer, because if he didn’t, Jennifer would’ve died or continued to be in Russell’s hands.
The issue of this movie was Russell Williams. Now it was easy to comprehend his actions in this film, but the character felt weak even though what he has done was pretty darn scary, he didn’t really played out well. If Russell did something else throughout the movie, it would of made the movie more interesting. For example, even though he did play the nice guy to Jennifer, it seemed too quick. At the same time, he already was a suspicious character. Russell may have killed Jennifer’s parents, real husband, and almost killed the detective, but he was too easy. With those half baked photoshopped photos, fake no service phone, and isolated house away from the city, it was easy. Russell could’ve played “fake it until you make it” like putting Jennifer into these medical appointments as needed anyway rather than the nurse, detective, or secretary getting suspicious. But why would Russell want to kill off Jennifer’s husband just like that? Before Jennifer and the husband got married, he didn’t even want to try to squeeze himself into Jennifer’s life, without violence involved. Russell’s obsession for Jennifer didn’t feel like obsession.
There were a few things missing, which might make viewers have questions: Was showing the murder of the parents necessary? It was a little token of the backstory but that certain scene was gross to look at. Who was the bearded guy who brought flowers at the hospital? Once again, why did Russell have to kill him right away? It would’ve been interesting to know why he tried to visit Jennifer. The real husband of Jennifer was shown dead in the trunk, why?
Lastly, the ending. It wasn’t a bad ending, but hoping there were concepts that would be resolved so there wouldn’t be any questions left for the audience. It wasn’t convincing how Jennifer was able to overcome her trauma despite that three months jump. What happened to Russell? Did they find the husband’s dead body and the bearded man’s body? What about the murder of the parents?
If you crave thrillers, it is late at night, or have nothing else to do, check out Netflix’s newest film!
