LOVE OBJECT

Kenneth is a lonely and maladjusted man, daily immersed in his work as an employee in a company that produces instruction manuals and unable to establish a relationship with a woman. One day he buys "Nikki" on the internet, a life-sized customizable doll. From the start, Kenneth feels emotionally more fulfilled, but soon begins a strange, perverse, and obsessive relationship with Nikki, who seems to have come to life. The situation complicates when Kenneth starts to feel feelings for Lisa, a coworker, as Nikki becomes dangerously jealous... With two years of delay, the original and interesting thriller with horror elements by Robert Paris also arrives in Italy, unfortunately only for the home video market. "Love Object" is an anomalous film, with an original and fascinating story, entirely centered on the disturbed psychology of the protagonist, a Desmond Harrington ("Wrong Turn", "Nave fantasma") convincing, estranged, and unsettling like the character he portrays. This film describes a middle-class world undermined by an internal rot from which nothing and no one is spared: life is monotonous and aseptic, like the protagonist's work and his dreams that unfold in an immaculate, artificially white world; interpersonal relationships are cold, formal, and unpleasant, while the only thing that seems to make the individual happy, catapult him into his most intimate dimension, is fiction: the fiction of a life he does not possess and the fetishistic relationship with an object that is only the simulacrum of real desire (in this regard, it is exemplary the way the protagonist begins to confuse the doll and his coworker, making them dress and makeup in the same way); a "love object", therefore, that over time will be able to redeem itself and dominate the one who dominated it, transforming the latter into the true "object". Technically, the film has no flaws, but also no particular merits: Paris' direction (already director of numerous episodes of the late 1980s television series "Tales from the crypt") is diligent but in some points slightly flat, while the screenplay, by the same director, is engaging and well-built, capable of telling an original story of growing madness. The cast, in addition to the aforementioned Harrington, includes some good actors such as the beautiful Melissa Sagemiller ("Soul survivors"; "In ostaggio"), Udo Kier ("Blade"; "Giorni contati"; "Paura.com"), and Rip Torn (the likable Z of both "Men in Black"). There are no particularly gory scenes, but given the psychological thriller tone that the film acquires with the passing of minutes, they would have seemed out of place. In conclusion, "Love Object" is an original and well-made film, with a convincing cast and an intriguing story that would have certainly deserved more attention from Italian distribution. Perhaps not suitable for those who seek only splatter and action in the horror genre, but warmly recommended to everyone else.