MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘Obsessions’: An Appealing Battle of Wills

“Obsessions” (at the Los Feliz) is a modest, engaging and sensitive independent feature that is impressive in various ways even though it ends unsatisfactorily. The film has no distributor, so there is a possibility that its makers--executive producer Vic Burner, cinematographer-director Jacob Eleasari and his co-writer, Randall Ullmer--could still work out a more satisfying finish.

It’s a drama of psychological suspense in which a battle of wills develops between a pretty religious fanatic (d. Franki Horner) and a young gay man (Paul Randall). To their credit, Eleasari and Ullmer make it clear that Horner’s increasingly scary Mary is not to be taken as some sort of projection of an irrational gay fear of women. Mary does not represent all women, although her intrusion into the lives of Randall’s Charlie and his lover Ray (Ron Lanza) does act as a catalyst upon their relationship. Indeed, acting as a balance to Mary is Irene Kennedy as Charlie’s loving, vital grandmother.

Charlie, Mary and Ray are well-drawn. Ray is a kindly, attractively middle-aged, very successful physician whose many professional and civic commitments leave him little time for Charlie, a good-looking 29-year-old would-be actor and playwright. Charlie is sweet, a bit spoiled and petulant, naive and very vulnerable. There’s no question that Ray and Charlie are devoted to each other, even though Charlie sometimes feels lonely and neglected in Ray’s large Mediterranean-style estate.

With his high-profile activities and personal charm, Ray is just the kind of man to whom Mary would be attracted, and poor Charlie quickly becomes plagued with her constant, decidedly menacing visits. Ray has that maddening calm so characteristic of successful and secure professional men and just won’t take Charlie’s fears of Mary seriously.

This handsomely photographed, well-acted, traditional-style film builds so surely that only an all-out confrontation among the principals would really satisfy; anything less would seem a letdown. Specifically, its abrupt, open ending doesn’t work because we’re convinced that Mary really is dangerous. “Obsessions” (Times-rated Mature for adult themes) leaves us wanting to see more of its actors, especially the distinctive and compelling Horner.