Love Object (2004)

Too much of everything

Too many fans seem to be blown away

Good concept, poorly executed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Acting was okay, story was a little slow overall but the ending made up for it to some degree. If you want to find out for yourself stop reading and watch the movie. I've seen far worse in the horror genre.Otherwise this was a story about a lonely asocial guy becomes obsessed with his sex doll and can't play well with others so he goes on a crazy delusional rampage to turn his live GF into a sex doll and things go haywire in his favor. Funny how life can turn out.

This film had so much potential - a good premise, great actors, a decent budget, but it fails because of the script.The film is not sure what it wants to be - horror? comedy? drama? romance? It tries to do it all and doesn't do any of them well. It fails completely in that regard.The film could've shown how society is becoming more and more isolated, people working jobs in cubicles to go home to their tiny box apartments with their potted plants and their pets, but the film skims through that issue rather than drive it home. Lisa made a comment that she could disappear and no one would know, but it was an off-hand comment that was not explored further. The film could've spent more time exploring this existential crisis rather than have a man arguing with a doll. Show Lisa as a loner too, a sad cat lady. Show Kenneth as someone who becomes more and more lonely as his gamer friends move away in pursuit of jobs/money, leaving his only contact with them is through online gaming. Show how both Kenneth and Lisa get birthday or Christmas calls on their answering machines from their parents. Show them eating lunch alone in their cubicles.Make it sad. Make it depressing, psychological, so that when Kenneth starts arguing with the doll, he has been pushed to the limit and has lost touch with reality rather than he's playing a role-playing game.Make it more psychological. The turning point in the film was when Lisa discovers a photo of the doll wearing her clothes. It's too cheap. Make it something more subtle, such as Kenneth becoming more aggravated as Lisa is a real human being with flaws. She menstruates, she snores, she has to shave her legs, she's not always in the mood for sex, etc. Make her moody, depressive, suicidal even. Make it human vs doll, reality vs fantasy. That's where the turning point should be. Make Kenneth become irritated and irritable to the point where she leaves him.This movie goes for cheap shortcuts rather than build-up and payoff - Lisa learns about the doll, the building super walks into the room and gets killed, etc.Instead of being deep, disturbing, philosophical, existential, psychological and depressing, it ends up being cheesy - cubicle worker buys doll, dates cubicle girl, she learns about doll, things goes bad, he kills cubicle girl (indirectly, but still).I can't recommend it to anyone, but it has the potential for a remake if done right.

Fantastic, incredible little movie that slipped in under the radar. I could kick myself for not seeking it out sooner.Things start off simple enough with nerdy technical writer Kenneth being given a large project and a new assistant named Lisa. Kenneth has trouble relating to the flesh and blood Lisa, so he creates a double - a lifelike sex doll named Niki. Niki gives Kenneth the confidence he needs to succeed in real life with work and with Lisa. But when Lisa finds out about Niki, Kenneth's life and mind take a turn for the worse.Dreamy Desmond Harrington is amazing as Kenneth. His transformation from geek to dreamboat to psychopath is seamless and incredibly frightening. Melissa Sagemiller acquits herself nicely as Lisa, and Rip Torn is delightful as the boss. One of my favorites.

"Love Object" is a nice thriller/horror film.**SPOILERS**Kenneth Winslow, (Desmond Harrington) a technical writer at a large firm, is assigned to a special project that no one else wants. His assistant, Lisa Bellmer, (Melissa Sagemiller) causes him to become behind in his work, and a visit to a friend to get his head on straight puts him in connection with a company that makes life-size sex dolls. When it arrives, it changes him around and he manages to get back the spark in his work. As Kenneth and Lisa start to form a friendship outside of the office, he gets the paranoid feeling that the doll at home is jealous of his relationship with Lisa. Starting an actual relationship with her, she finds out about the doll, and it all comes crashing down.The Good News: This is actually a better film than it's roots give it. While on the surface it appears more like a drama, it actually manages to shift styles quite competently. It manages to change from several different styles with ease, and while one of them is on display, there are still qualities and examples of the others woven in together. When the tone becomes all-out horror later on, it becomes a more straight-forward horror tale and it gets some great moments in. A thrilling parking garage scene gets some good scares in, mainly due to it's placing in the film. The angles and shadows work just as well as the placing, but it still gives off some good creeps and jumps. A lot of what goes on in the third part is mainly due to the old-school use of sound effects and off-screen noises used to add creepiness and uncertainty as to what is happening. Those are really effective methods used to invoke a sense of unease in viewers, and the fact that they are put into a modern film is a nice change of pace to see. When the violence arrives, it's enough to satisfy the more traditional horror fans, with a mostly excellent torture sequence that is pretty short but gets the point across about it's intentions.The Bad News: There is a lot of dramatic moments and themes in here, and for the more hard-core horror fans that like it straight, this can turn into a pretty dull film. There is really not a whole lot going on in the beginning and middle of the film. The horror comes in at the end, which means that it needs a large amount of patience to get there. It's possible, as the story is pretty clever and there are some individual moments in there worthy of keeping interest in the film, but it takes a while to set everything up and get to those moments.The Final Verdict: If it can make a tighter first half, this might be a better film. It falls much clearer into the thriller category than out-right horror, it still gets enough gruesome moments for most horror fans. If you like more dramatic moments mixed with your horror, then give this one a rental. Those that prefer a faster pace with more obvious horror might want to exercise caution with this one.Rated R: Doll and human Nudity, Violence, Language and continuous off-screen sex sounds