Who's Zooming Whom?
Addicted To Love Blurs Lines Of Voyeurism

The sensation struck me as oddly familiar. Two people sat in a darkened room, staring at a projection on the wall. They even ate popcorn. No, I'm not describing the scene in the theater. This was a scene in Addicted To Love, where two spurned lovers watched the objects of their obsessions reflected on a wall. Movie watchers within a movie. For one brief instance, I too felt like a voyeur.

First-time director Griffen Dunne has done something interesting in his debut. He has blurred the line between the peeping Tom and the movie goer. It is enough to make the audience uncomfortable -- if they become aware of the subtle comparison. Unfortunately, it is too subtle for the target audience of this "romantic comedy", and such clever insights are not enough to carry the movie.

Addicted To Love is the story of an astronomer named Sam (Matthew Broderick) who rushes off to New York after his beloved Linda (Kelly Preston) when she sends him a Dear John letter (read to him by her father -- a bizarre scene of its own). When Sam arrives in New York, he discovers Linda has moved out of her hotel and into a loft with a strange man. Obsessed, confused, and oddly determined, Sam enters the condemned building across the street and begins watching his love. First he watches through the window, later via a projection thrown on the wall with a device known as a camera obscura.

Enter Maggie (Meg Ryan), a tough, street-wise photographer who is equally interested in the two lovers, as her former fiancé Anton (Tchéky Karyo) is the strange man in the loft. Together, Maggie and Sam watch in fascination, waiting for what Sam believes is the inevitable break up. When it doesn't happen as predicted, they decide to take a more "hands-on" approach to solving the problem.

At this point the characters cross the line between unrequited lovers and obsessed psychos. The audience has difficulty sympathizing for people who break the law repeatedly in an effort to hurt Anton and drive he and Linda apart. In the end, we begin to sympathize with Anton instead. Such manipulation of the audience is not by accident. Like Sam, we grow in understanding, and wonder what the heck they were doing all along.

Broderick is outstanding as Sam, showing a vulnerable love-stricken side which later melds with Maggie's obsession. He is funny and charming. This is probably one of his best performances, second only to The Night We Never Met. Ryan strays from her cute roles in the past and plays Maggie with a dark anger. Although her anger is more passive-aggressive, it is no less devastating. Karyo gives an off-putting performance as the French Anton, but we begin to respect him and even like him by the end of the show. Preston is pretty, but little more than window dressing.

This movie is not the harmless "romantic comedy" the previews make it appear. The story is not so much about a love triangle (rhombus?) as an experiment in crossing traditional boundaries in love and obsession. There is a lot at work in Addicted To Love, and in the hands of a more seasoned director it may have made a better statement.

MY RATING: 5 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 101 min.