The movie "Compulsion" succeeds in making the plot very complex, but in its world saturated with fantasy and fixation, it also comes across as confusing in terms of tones and behaviour patterns. The colour palettes and food obsessions are quite exquisite to look at may surely make your mouth water, but everywhere else going for this movie results in one muddled mess. If you're an aficionado of over-the-top obsessive antics and psychological drama may get a kick out of "Compulsion" and director Egidio Coccimiglio serves up a fine dish of that, the study of domestic decadence mixed with exotic culinary delights really good enough to eat.
Carrie-Anne Moss stars as Saffron; a one-time child movie star who was abused off-camera has now become a frightened journalist for a sex magazine has now gone missing in action. This leads to Detective Reynolds (Joe Mantegna) on the case to find her. Reynolds' searching has led to the apartment home of her neighbour Amy (Heather Graham). The home and she seem very clean and the character herself has a total fixation for cooking new, exciting and curiously delicious foods. It's like comfort zone to Amy to please the people around her which also includes her womanizing husband Fred (Kevin Dillon). Amy's dream job is to one day be like Rachel Ray and host her own cooking show and to exhibit her foods and ideas in front of a world-wide audience. With her life progressively crumbling down in front of her, she tries to gain reassurance from Saffron and to please her with her cooking making herself on the brink of a reclusive lifestyle. Saffron feeling bad for Amy decides to take up her gale force company and allows her service to prevail.
The movie is a reboot of the 1995 Korean film "301/302" which focuses on the macabre tale of obsessive traits in an eccentric friendship brews in which Amy finds ways to keep her unhealthily clean home in tact with her sexual fixture of food to keep her husband wrapped around her finger in spite Fred's lust for other women. With her imaginary audience as she cooks up exquisite dishes using state-of-the-art equipment. Coccimiglio utilizes vibrant lighting to get a good grip on Amy's solitude while at the same time, which plays off to her loyal fans. It's clear that the culinary genius is in her escape zone to her troubles, but it's her inner madness that will likely keep her audience enthralled.
Legendary cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond produces elegant lighting and bright colouring to this picture backed by a very sublime post-production tinkering. It's a great movie to study upon, that rich and spontaneous and the costuming by Melissa Stewart has that Hollywood feeling going for it that Amy wears in her tight-lair of her apartment. It is a visual treat for the eyes filled with attention and voluminous detail which could pass off as meagre budgeted mystery. The cinematic feel towards the human psyche adding to the nourish touches towards the Saffron character as the perpetually uncomfortable star who's psychological scars are the results from the upper echelons of the film industry and her controlling mother. It may at first appear that this movie is very easy to watch, even though the shock value doesn't quite materialize here.
Casting is rather hit-or-miss. Graham plays her role as Amy quite flawlessly as a woman whose dangerous food obsession makes her imprisoned by her own craft with no one to share her food and her knowledge. Graham exhibits a graceful aura with the inner psyche is hidden inside of her as she makes her character perky and high-spirited. Yet Floyd Byars' script is contrary to that. Miss Moss has suffered the same fate of being miscast as a neurotic has-been actress whose past her prime. The chemistry by the two leads are not exactly compelling, even though they turn in a passable effort to demonstrate just how fragile these women are in their worlds.
The mandatory finale requires a strong need for some sort of motivation to wrap up the movie. However, what we get here is a fascination of oral sex rather than shocking ending. It makes the whole concept very puzzling as more bonding was in store for Amy and Saffron which nudges them in more of their acts of dedication. The finale ends way too rushed and the only thing you get out of the conclusion is an unsatisfying punch-line. It has so much potential for a psychological thriller, but in the end it feels like we have been cheated.
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