!!SPOLIERS AHEAD!! Love Object is a promising movie with an interesting premise that, for numerous reasons, ultimately fails to satisfy. Desmond Harrington plays a handsome, intelligent yet socially inept -- young man named Kenneth who buys a realistic sex doll named Nikki. His boss assigns a beautiful young temp named Lisa (Melissa Sagemiller) to help Kenneth, a technical writer, on his latest assignment. While Kenneth may be completely clueless and somewhat crazy, he is sane enough to find himself attracted to the impossibly cute Lisa. Complications arise when Kenneth starts to believe that Nikki (the doll) is becoming jealous of the time he's spending with Lisa. This portion of the film is by no means flawless, but at least it's not afraid to explore the themes of objectification and unconventional sexual interests. Though the dialogue and its delivery are clumsy at times and I suspect the directing has something to do with the awkwardness in this case this part of the film is the most interesting and enjoyable, at least from a movie watching perspective. The last act of the film, however, gradually spirals out of control and becomes a more-or-less standard horror/suspense flick. A chain of events set off by Lisa's unrealistic overreaction upon discovering Nikki -- that eventually leads to Lisa's being held captive while Kenneth prepares to turn her into a true love object seemed to be an easier way of resolving the storyline. That is, it was easier to write off Kenneth as a mere psycho than it was to develop him as a more complex young man with severe but not completely hopeless -- emotional problems. The climactic twist and you knew there would be one came off as a strained (and thoroughly exhausted) example of contemporary cinema's obsession with irony and cynicism.
Love Object is a difficult little film to review because, despite all of the aforementioned shortcomings, it does boast many positive characteristics, too. The mood of the film is genuinely creepy, and Kenneth's growing obsession with Nikki is well played. Desmond Harrington may be a bit too conventionally attractive for the role of Kenneth, but he gives a solid performance nonetheless. Melissa Sagemiller is well cast as the comely but uncomfortable new girl on the job, and she receives some bravery points for taking on a role that requires her to be more-or-less bound, gagged, and extremely distressed for nearly a quarter of the film. And while he wasn't given much to do, Udo Kier's presence somehow always makes a movie more enjoyable. Ultimately the film's shortcomings are too glaring to overlook, especially the development of Kenneth into a cookie-cutter psycho instead of one of the more memorably complex characters in recent films.
Love Object is a difficult little film to review because, despite all of the aforementioned shortcomings, it does boast many positive characteristics, too. The mood of the film is genuinely creepy, and Kenneth's growing obsession with Nikki is well played. Desmond Harrington may be a bit too conventionally attractive for the role of Kenneth, but he gives a solid performance nonetheless. Melissa Sagemiller is well cast as the comely but uncomfortable new girl on the job, and she receives some bravery points for taking on a role that requires her to be more-or-less bound, gagged, and extremely distressed for nearly a quarter of the film. And while he wasn't given much to do, Udo Kier's presence somehow always makes a movie more enjoyable. Ultimately the film's shortcomings are too glaring to overlook, especially the development of Kenneth into a cookie-cutter psycho instead of one of the more memorably complex characters in recent films.