Twisted Obsession (1989) Poster

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6/10
A psychological and twisted thriller by Fernando Trueba , concerning a suspenseful web of sexual intrigue
ma-cortes1 June 2015
It deals with Daniel Gillis (Jeff Goldblum) , an American screenwriter living in Paris , recently left by his spouse (Anemone) , and getting used to his new life as a bachelor while attempting to take care of his son , Danny who is also attended by an old maid (Asunción Balaguer) . Daniel suffers marital difficulties being exacerbated when he gets involved in an European movie project financed by a Paris-based rich producer (Daniel Ceccaldi) . The offer comes from a wealthy financier named Legrand , but on this occasion he is being asked to write an unconventional flick with Malcolm (Dexter Fletcher) , a young and unknown film director who has only a brief quotation from one of Dan's favourite novels , Peter Pan . Dan is undecided about the offer , seeing it as far from the kind of work he has used to make , but Legrand's insistence and the intrigue personality of the young filmmaker finally convince him to accept the filmmaking despite the reticence of his business agent , Marilyn (Miranda Richardson) , who was initially reluctant , but subsequently changes her opinion and she does him a good deal . Surrounding the project is an eerie cobweb of upsetting happenings , it forces him to search for tracks about the whole business of the making of this film , as he begins writing an avant-garde and almost abstract plot . Later on , his complete existence will be modified as he immerses himself in a twisted relationship with an adolescent Femme Fatale called Jenny (Liza Walker) , Malcolm's 16-year-old sister . In his spellbinding quest , he discovers that he has been conned and betrayed until a thrilling as well as frightening climax .

This strange , dark psychological chiller contains thrills , hallucinatory dream sequences , serpentine plot twists , sexual fantasy , shock effects and builds inexorably to a disturbing , tight finale . This rare film being compellingly shot by Award Winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba , the director of ¨Belle Epoque¨ and including an international all-star-cast . In the film there is a dense tapestry of sexual obsession , relying more on weird atmosphere than in action and clear scenes . It has a complex intrigue in which a screen-writer is caught within a web of greed and ambition from which he will be unable to getaway when takes place infatuation with a young girl ; in fact , this character at the center of which catalyses all the participants' selfish desires . As there happens a closed universe of incestuous relations surrounding Malcolm and his beautiful young sister Jenny , with whom Dan soon becomes obsessed . An agreeable story plenty of intense drama , thrilling moments , and tragic climax . It is a thought-provoking , wistful thriller , hard to watch , and difficult to understand . It is as beautiful filmed as it is written and acted . Director Fernando Trueba , also writes the interesting script along with Manolo Matji based on the novel by Christopher Frank . The cast is frankly well , as Jeff Goldblum as a writer who is commissioned to write a script when he discovers that there is more at stake than just a movie ; Miranda Richardson as his beautiful but disabled agent bounded to wheel-chair ; Daniel Ceccaldi as Legrand , a successful producer with whom he has worked in the past ; Dexter Fletcher as a precocious young English filmmaker who wants to direct a bizarre story in which he has only the flimsiest of outlines ; the androgynous teen played by Liza Walker and Arielle Dombasle as a famous actress . Furthermore , a sinister but colorful cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine , Trueba's ordinary cameraman . Amazing and electrifying original musical score by Antoine Duhamel .

This intelligent though slow motion picture was well and deliberately directed by Fernando Trueba . His first success was Ópera Prima (1980) following the style of the "Madrid comedy". He had major success with ¨Sé Infiel y No mires Quién¨ (1985) also known as : ¨Be Wanton and Tread No Shame¨ , starting a longer collaboration with the producer Andrés Vicente Gómez . He went on directing numerous successes such as ¨Coarse salt¨ , ¨Too Much¨ , ¨Milagro De Candeal¨ , ¨Year of Enlightment¨ , ¨The Girl of Your Dreams¨ , ¨Calle 54¨ , ¨Embrujo De Shanghái¨ , ¨Chico and Rita¨ . Trueba was President of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and he received the 1994 Oscar for Best Foreign Film to ¨Belle Epoque¨ (1992) . His last film was ¨The Artist and the model¨ handled with smooth assurance by Trueba , as usual .
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5/10
Too long and leads nowhere.
gridoon2 February 2002
This movie holds your interest for quite a while, with its eccentric and enigmatic characters, atmospheric direction and first-rate acting by Jeff Goldblum and Miranda Richardson (Lisa Walker is kind of weak though, as the nymphet). But eventually it becomes clear that the story leads nowhere. Its "title history" is a giveaway: you can find it listed under either "The Mad Monkey" (unattractive and meaningless - it's only the title of a fictional movie we learn nothing about) or "Twisted Obsession" (more "suggestive" and commercial)....but actually it doesn't matter what it's called, because it ultimately isn't ABOUT anything in particular. (**)
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5/10
Weird! Wild! Goldblum!
BandSAboutMovies25 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Originally titled El Sueño del Mono Loco (The Dream of the Mad Monkey), this is based on the Christopher Frank book. While it has the 90's genre of erotic thriller attached to it, this is very much in the world of the giallo.

To wit: Jeff Goldblum's Dan Gillis is a stranger in a strange land, one of the key tropes of the yellow-tinged thriller, a writer in Paris who has been left behind by his wife and suddenly a single father to his son Danny. A writer by trade, he's brought in by a producer to work with an enfant terrible young director named Malcolm Greene on a script.

Ironically, the actor playing that young director - Dexter Fletcher - would grow up and move on from acting (he was Baby Face in the absurd and wonderful child gangster musical Bugsy Malone) to directing some of today's biggest films, such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman.

What draws us closer to the psychosexual domain of the giallo is that Gillis soon becomes obsessed by Malcolm's sister Jenny (Liza Walker from Hackers in her first film). While presented as somewhere in her teens, she's also a lolita who possesses the sexual attention of every man she meets, from our protagonist to her brother.

Miranda Richardson also figures in as Dan's disabled agent who, like everyone in this movie, just wants to get horizontal with one of West Homestead's favorite sons.

I'm not saying this is a good movie. I'm just saying that it's interesting that somehow Goldblum made two movies one after the other - this and Mister Frost - that are borderline bonkers horror experimentations that no one really talks about. This is after he was a star from The Fly and yet here he is, making really strange movies in foreign lands. Leave it to a Mill Creek box set to bring this to my attention.
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3/10
A real letdown
Leofwine_draca31 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
TWISTED OBSESSION is a very strange, slow-moving and unsatisfying mystery drama that comes as a Spanish/French co-production with a Hollywood cast. Supposedly based on the novel, it suffers from not knowing exactly what it wants to be, leaving it all over the place. The plot is increasingly murky and leads to some uncomfortable moments, but never really goes anywhere, and if you're looking for loose ends to be tied up satisfactorily then you've come to the wrong place. I only watched for the cast, and they don't disappoint; Jeff Goldblum works hard to invest his character with something - anything - but struggles with the part, and who can blame him? Miranda Richardson and Dexter Fletcher are equally underutilised in turn. A pity, as you get the feeling that this might have been something interesting had it had better writing.
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7/10
Surprisingly good
J-bot66 February 2017
I saw this film as part of a set of cheap-o movies. So far, the films in the collection had been total crap.

Then I dropped this one into the player and did a double-take when I first noticed that the dialog and acting were both good.

The next question that popped into my head was, "Am I imagining things, or is this movie also well shot and well lit?" Followed shortly by, "You know, I think this is actually a good film." By the time it reached the scene where Goldblum started screaming, I was totally sold. What a wicked little movie.

1989 was a bad year for film, so I certainly wish I had known about this one back then.
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Not one redeeming feature!
Wizard-82 November 2013
"Twisted Obsession" is without doubt one of the worst movies that I've seen in a long, long, time. It's obviously an attempt to emulate the kind of movies that Alfred Hitchcock made (the musical score, for one thing, sounds very Bernard Herrmannesque), but it fails in every way you can think of. Jeff Goldblum, for one thing, is extremely miscast, sticking out like a sore thumb and not blending in with the scenery or other actors. Possibly his bad performance is due to the fact that the screenplay is a sorry mess - for much of the movie, NOTHING of serious consequence happens! Things start to happen towards the end, but they are muddled and confusing, so much so that I didn't know what to think when the end credits suddenly started to roll. If you are looking for a pointless way to waste 103 minutes, here's your movie.
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3/10
Bad movies can also be made with a small budget
DubVersion3 April 2005
Jeff Goldblum is a good actor. He has his typical way and sure enough this movie demonstrates his skills. However, the script is not well made. There is some interesting dialog, but there are many parts that should have been explained in more detail. The Paris scenery hadn't been used to an advantage; it could have taken place in any other city. The rest of the cast was simply poor; it explains why the other actors never hit it big. The worst part of the movie is the story itself; it's quite boring and one had wished a point or moral question would be addressed. The music was very wrong as well. It was out dated, even for 1980, and bad timing. The whole movie fails miserably in delivering a message or story telling. They posted this movie as a thriller, which puts the viewer in a wrong state of mind. It definitely was not worth my time. I voted 3/10.
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5/10
Nothing Special - Just An Average Film
Rainey-Dawn8 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
The film is based on the novel The Dream of the Mad Monkey by Christopher Frank. The movie is known as The Mad Monkey and Twisted Obsession. WARNING SPOILERS BELOW! Daniel Gillis & Julien Legrand were both played by Malcolm Greene and his sister Jenny. Jenny used sex to get to the men and she's only 16 years old. The reason for this is so Malcom and Jenny's movie will be made - to get a foothold into and maybe become big time in the (porno) film industry and all with the help of Marilyn (Daniel's agent and also the agent of the two kids). Basically, the 16 year old girl can and will yell "rape" if the men backed out of doing the film - while shelling out money to the two youthful (porno) film makers.

At beginning of the film, Malcolm tells Daniel of a book called The Mad Monkey that his sister found and that is what they want to base their film on it. Malcolm clearly states that movies are like bad dreams.

It seems it's one of those endings that leaves you guessing "did all this really happen OR was it all something that Daniel just wrote and Marilyn just read it as we watched it?" It's an okay film. A sexploration, incest, manipulation film based of the novel.

5/10
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10/10
Intelligent, and fascinating
theodorbjork19 September 2004
The plot: Writer, Dan Gillis, is hired to write a script for a money obsessed producer and a half-crazed director (and subsequently his sister) He soon realizes something is wrong, and that this film should not have been written. This leads to a confusing, and enigmatic journey trough the dark alleys of Paris. Greed, lust and insanity shows itself at very corner, and the movie becomes more about anything else than the movie itself. We never actually see the movie, and with good reason, instead we are left with an idea of a; half-pornographic, psychotic and depressing storyline. But, as many got wrong, it's not about the movies, the film is about people, their greed, lust and insanity, their madness and they way nothing is as it seems. Beware! It's one of those films where you can't trust anybody (except Jeff of course)

I can't see how nobody likes this. Obviously if you are looking for Die Hard or a commercial action thriller you ARE going to be let down. This is nothing of the sort. It's an: intelligent, fascinating, psychotic, confusing, disturbing and utmost bizarre story. Then again isn't life all those things?

The film is wonderfully executed, with fascinating shots and angels. If I would complain about anything it's the quality of film, and the fact that 90% of all scenes are faded out, which gives it an amateurish feel. But maybe that's what they wanted.

This is a different movie, an almost neorealistic movie, it's a masterpiece of writing, and the acting is superb.

I suggest you set of one evening to see this film. Preferably a dark a rainy night, cause this will scare the living daylight out of you.

One thing a commenter commented was: it constantly leads to something and then stops. Some may not like this, I thought it was incredible. It's slightly Wagnerian! (Lot's of huffs and puffs, lots of build up, and never any release, never any release of the climax, it just lingers in the air until it fades away.)

If you like realistic yet bizarre films, if you like a great story see this!
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10/10
A very good, dark movie
soltero-429 March 2006
An excellent movie, but not for everyone. Trueba's tinges of black humour cover a plot of sex, heroin and the not making of a movie. Liza Walker has an astounding performance as a young femme fatale. It's a pity her filmography is so short.

This is a very dark film, with a strange suspense. You really never know where the film is heading. But this is one of its merits.

And yes, in some countries (such as Mexico) unclaimed corpses are given away to medical schools and kept in huge translucid pools of formaldehyde, before they're given to students. Where do you think doctors-to-be get the bodies they train from, 1-800-deathpeople?
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8/10
A Dark Fim Indeed
ladymidath10 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Okay, I first saw this movie years ago mainly because it had Jeff Goldblum in it and I do love his acting style.

Twisted Obsession is one of his more interesting films and certainly one of his more perverse ones.

Based on the novel, The Dream Of The Mad Monkey, it tells the story of an American screen writer, Dan Gillis (Jeff Goldblum) who is hired to write a script. He becomes obsessed with the young directer Malcolm who is in an incestuous relationship with his beautiful sister Jenny. Thing begin to spiral out of control and soon he is trapped.

Jeff Goldblum as usual gives a fine performance as the single father whose wife recently walked out leaving him to care for his young son.

Miranda Richardson as Marilyn, his disabled agent is great as well. Both Dexter Fletcher as Malcolm Greene and Liza Walker as his sister Jenny Greene give good solid performances but to be honest, this is really Jeff Goldblum's film.

This isn't a movie for all tastes, the buildup is slow and there is not a lot of action, but the story is atmospheric with a real underlying sense of creepiness that makes it interesting. While it is not as good as The Deadly Mr Frost, I think you will find it worthwhile.
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