Secret Obsession is a 2019 thriller about a woman recuperating from trauma, who remains in danger as she returns to a life she doesn’t remember.
It’s only fair to start with Brenda Strong, who has long made a name for herself on television and a few catchy roles in some big budgets films with 2010’s The Social Network perhaps her most memorable. Either way, she’s due for a break, the spirited actress pretty reliable in just about any genre. She had a good turn in the recent Netflix film Changeland and is back for more in the streaming service’s latest, Secret Obsession, a generic take on an old story that is about as paint-by-numbers as a movie can get, even with some impressive work by a willing cast.
Beginning in a deluge where young Jennifer Williams (Song) is on the run from a hooded, knife-wielding maniac, she is struck by a car and while her injuries are extensive, the real problem is that she’s lost her memory. This leaves her husband Russell (Mike Vogel) with a bit of a struggle, his new wife not even knowing his name. They’ve got a long road ahead, trying to reconnect. Meanwhile, Detective Frank Page (Dennis Haysbert) has a few questions of his own, some wounds on Jennifer’s body not consistent with the kind of accident she was in, not to mention her car is missing. Turns out, not everything is as it seems, and there is a reason she was being chased.
If you’re any kind of fan of Lifetime Channel movie-of-the-week dramas then you’re in luck because this is that and well, worse. About as dense as a sheet of paper, Secret Obsession is mostly just silly, with barely a single authentic moment in the entire runtime. I supposes that’s half the point, the film hopelessly obvious from the very first frame so that there is absolutely no surprises anywhere (and if there were, the trailer for it makes sure to spoil them as well). I won’t give anything away, but you’ve already guessed correctly as to where this goes, and believe me, reading just this sentence is more challenging than anything you’ll see in the whole movie.
Strong is of course good fun and seems to know exactly what she’s got herself into, wrapping her face in knotted brows and curious expressions, doing what she can with the whisper thin plot. She deserves heaps better than this, but writer and director Peter Sullivan is apparently limited to the basics, everything safely bundled into the most vanilla treatment possible. The always great Haysbert is given plenty of potential in an emotionally devastated cop but the story drops any hope of making that matter almost right after we meet him, leaving him little to do but color inside the wide lines laid out before him. Vogel is no better, everything about what he ends up like a flashing neon sign.
Secret Obsession is a dull movie with its tame action and simple dialogue, even with likable talents doing their best to give it all some spark. It’s a featureless effort so hollow of any inspiration, it fades away almost as soon as you finish, making it more than a little disappointing considering how much Strong feels primed for something with punch.