PLOT SUMMARY: Following an accident, after she loses part of her memory, Jennifer finds herself unable to trust her husband.
Memories are so important to us. And they are important to movie makers as well it seems because the easiest thriller to make is to create a character, make them lose their memory and then deposit them in a situation where they find themselves in danger because they simply cannot remember the dangerous person.
Here's another one.
SECRET OBSESSION Movie Plot
First of all, the plot is in the title. It doesn't matter that we see a woman running away from something or that she is desperate enough to run in the rain and break car windows to get away. We know from the title that she isn't just running away from anyone. She's running away from someone who is secretly obsessed with her. Of course, now that secret is obsessed and she is running away from the obsessed person.
She gets into the car but it is pulled and stopped by a white truck. The woman gets out, runs about, and is promptly hit by a car.
The woman catches glimpses of the hospital and catches one or two words of what the doctors are saying.
A man comes running in, claiming to be her husband. He meets with the nurse who tells him his wife, Jennifer, is in the operation theatre. He introduces himself as Russel and shows his obsession...scratch that...devotion by barging into the operation theatre and requesting the doctors to save his wife.
He further shows his devotion by waiting all night and sleeping in an uncomfortable chair until the nurse wakes him up and tells him that his wife has regained consciousness. Before he can visit her, the doctor tells him that his wife remembers almost everything except for her marriage to him.
Russell is beside himself but composes himself enough to be the ideal husband to Jennifer.
Jennifer doesn't click with him. She watches him suspiciously and eyes his wedding band and then her own because the doctors did not remove her jewelry during the operation. Because who was going to take the responsibility of diamond ring anyway? Not the doctors. It is better to leave it on the patient.
The next day Russell brings over an album and the photos in it are badly photoshopped but perhaps Jennifer has forgotten what photoshop is and accepts the photos as true.
Late at night, a suspicious looking man enters the hospital with a bouquet and insists on meeting with Jennifer. When he is told the visiting hours are over, he asks the flowers to be delivered to Jennifer. Russell just happens to be there, leaning against the wall and eyeing every single person who comes into the hospital.
The flowers obviously don't reach Jennifer. Suspicious!
Meanwhile Detective Frank Page is put on the case and he meets with the husband and finds the Jennifer had gone shopping when she met with the accident.
The case seems straight but the detective has an inkling that something else is up. The captain, however, doesn't believe him and thinks he's projecting his own trauma through this case. Turns out the Detective has his own sad story. His daughter had gone missing and was never found. Every year, he buys and wraps a present for her and keeps it in the closet. This is just to give the Detective some backstory and take up a few minutes because there is no other indication of how this propels the detective's intentions to work harder on the case.
Meanwhile, Jennifer finally gets to go home and the nurse makes her promise to use a cane. Jennifer gets a free cane and lets Russel drive her to their house.
She is amazed by the house and finds herself to be fortunate to have no memory but a husband and a huge house.
Russell takes her in and gives her a tour but nothing is still clicking into place for Jennifer. She keeps having nightmares of the night she met with an accident and then glimpses of her husband in a dark room. But she does remember he wears glasses and Russel wears glasses, so all is good.
The next day, Russell gets a call from the Detective who wants to question his wife about the accident. Russell tries to evade him while Jennifer tries to eavesdrop but finds it challenging to follow Russell around in a wheelchair. Russell promises the detective to bring Jennifer in tomorrow morning.
When Jennifer asks him later, he lies about a client calling him up. Very suspicious!
Jennifer has heard part of the conversation so she begins to doubt her husband.
The Detective keeps conducting interviews and finds out that one of the witnesses saw a white truck with a winch pulling Jennifer's car. The Detective waits for Jennifer the next day but is stood up.
Russell has had enough of making the audience guess his intentions and so he goes to the man who delivered flowers for Jennifer and tells him to stay away from his wife, then decides the warning won't be enough and kills him.
Jennifer is going through the photo album when she notices that Russell's reflection in the mirror shows a different hair color. She tries to use his laptop but she doesn't know the password as it is definitely not her name. By that time Russell has already entered the house and Jennifer pretends to stare at the shelves.
She makes an excuse about wanting to exercise her leg. Russell is amused and gifts her a phone because hers got lost. Jennifer is so excited until she finds out there is no cell service. Well, considering they live in a remote place obviously there isn't going to be any cell service.
So it is basically a paperweight.
In the meantime, the Detective is digging around and finds that the address Russell gave is wrong. Another couple lives in that house and has never heard of Russell and Jennifer.
He goes to the hospital and asks how the nurse knew Russell was Jennifer's husband. The nurse says he recognized a tattoo on her back. The Detective sees the photo and finds out that the A in the tattoo stands for Allen.
He then finds out her name is actually Jennifer Allen and uses his database to search for her. He goes to that address and finds Jennifer's parents have been murdered and their bodies are decomposing.
He asks the nurse to send him the security footage. In that, he sees Russell coming out from a white truck and then wearing glasses. Uh oh. Russell doesn't wear glasses. He wore them because Jennifer's husband used to wear it. So either he stole Jennifer's husband's glasses or got one made instantly to set up his disguise.
The detective feels foolish and is more than determined to get Russell now. He finds out where Russell works and goes there to find out Russell's name is actually Ryan Gaerity.
He sees the photos and finds that Jennifer was married to Russell but in every photo Ryan has been sulking and staring at Jennifer making it obvious he has a secret obsession with her.
Jennifer has also begun remembering things and realizes her husband used to look like someone else.
SECRET OBSESSION Ending Explained
Ryan returns and Jennifer pretends everything is normal. In the morning she tells Ryan she's going to cook for him and he goes off to buy groceries. Jennifer doesn't think her plan through when she steals his wallet. She finds her driving license in it and sees her real name and is shocked.
She goes to the door and finds it locked but luckily she has hairpins. She opens the door, hobbles downstairs, and goes back to the laptop. Jenniferallen works. That's the password. Of all the things, that is the password.
On it, she easily finds pictures of Russell in front of a blue screen. Suspicious. She goes to another folder and finds the real pictures of her husband and finally remembers everything.
But by then Ryan has already figured out he doesn't have his wallet and has turned around. He finds Jennifer snooping and conks her in the head. She awakens to find herself in bed with Ryan admitting he had a secret obsession with her and went to great lengths to get to her.
Ryan then said he needs to go somewhere to do something nefarious. Jennifer wiggles her foot out from the ties and the first thing she does is make an ankle support band using tape. She then gets into the garage but of course doesn't have the keys.
Just then Ryan returns and Jennifer pops into the backseat. She sees Ryan open the trunk make a face like he smelled something really bad. It's the real Russell. But Jennifer doesn't know yet and can't smell the rotten decomposed body.
Ryan then carries a bag of Lye inside. He has already buried the man with the flowers in the yard. Now its going to be Jennifer's husband?
Jennifer realizes she's in big trouble and heads back to her room to pretend she was always there. She hides her taped up leg.
Ryan comes back and is about to check her foot when there is a beep. Ryan goes to check it out and sees it is the detective.
The Detective manages to sneak in and Jennifer has managed to come downstairs. She tells the Detective to go at the back but he's immediately caught by Ryan and stuffed into the freezer.
Jennifer does some running around and makes it to the forest. By this time Ryan has decided to give up his secret obsession. It's too much work. He had to learn photoshop, murder parents and husband and wear glasses.
He removes the gun and is about to shoot Jennifer when the Detective, who managed to break out of the freezer, jumps with quite agility at Ryan.
Jennifer manages to snag the gun and takes a shot. She is quite good with the gun and gets Ryan in the arm.
Ryan shrugs off the Detective and staggers towards Jennifer who finally shoots him in the chest. A perfect bullseye.
The Detective feels a bit emasculated but gets over it.
Some time later he hands Jennifer a note her husband had left for her. The note was left in the office, supposed to be delivered by the flower guy but isn't.
The note is about loving her forever and a day.
The movie ends.
Secret Obsession has nothing new to offer except for tired old tropes. It's still an average movie to watch when there's nothing else to watch on TV.
Secret Obsession is available to watch on Netflix.
Scare Scale: 2.5/5
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