AddictedBy Wilson Morales
In recent years, from Diane Lane’s Unfaithful to even Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor, the “happily” married woman embarking on a dangerous affair genre has popped up on the screen every so often. The plotlines for the first two acts within any of these films are very similar. It’s the third act that will make a big difference whether the film has brought in a new flare to the genre or be considered a unnecessary retread. In adapting “Addicted”, the best-selling novel from Zane, while the leads (Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe, Tyson Beckford, and William Levy) are certainly attractive to bring the book to life, the film fails to live up to the melodrama and seductiveness that made the book popular.
We first meet Zoe Reynard telling her tale of destruction to her therapist Dr. Marcella Spencer (Tasha Smith). She’s a successful marketing woman with her own business, two wonderful kids and has a loving husband named Jason, who is a successful architect in his own field. Their marriage is great to the point where they can say words like “Our Love is Forever, Always Has Been, Always Will Be” before leaving their separate ways to work. As far as their sex life, it couldn’t be any better. At times, they’re able to have sex two or three times a day, and yet, she feels it’s not enough. All of a sudden, there exists a crazy appetite for more sex and Jason can’t muster the stamina to go another round or two.
Enter, Quinton Canosa, a wealthy Latin artist who’s never been photographed in public as told by her assistant and BFF Briana (Emayatzy Corinealdi). When Zoe meets him at one of his art galleries, he immediately flirts her, which peaks her interest. After stopping by his place for a business meeting, lust takes control as Zoe can’t resist the charms that Quentin lays on her and just like that, her marriage vows are broken. What should have been a one-time dalliance after having second thoughts and guilt staring her in the face, especially each time sees photos of her with the family, has turned into a passionate affair that’s lasted for months.
As her sessions with Dr. Spencer continues, Zoe describes her uncontrollable state of affairs that’s affecting her marriage and work. Not only is she still seeing Quinton, with him wanting her to leave Jason, but Zoe has also been sleeping with Corey, some dude she met at a nightclub and had sex in the bathroom before even knowing his name. He then introduces her to drugs and the world of S&M. With her business floundering, juggling sex between Quinton and Corey, and Jason starting to catch on as to what’s happening to their marriage, Zoe’s unraveling is only the start to something more destructive.
Zane’s a popular novelist whose stories have often been told on the smaller screen on Cinemax’s Zane’s Sex Chronicles, which has its share of devoted followers. On that pay cable program, sex is all folks want to see. They could care less about the plot. Although she wrote ‘Addicted’ nearly 20 years ago, it would have been difficult to make a faithful adaptation from book to screen. It has too many characters with their own storylines, but at the same time, the screenwriters (Christina Welsh, Ernie Barbarash) failed to piece together a film with cohesiveness. Instead, we get a lackluster sexual melodrama with that’s contrived and filled with plotholes. Without giving the story away if you haven’t read the book, missing is Zoe’s reason for her sexual repression that leads to several affairs. When it finally arrives, one may questions its positioning in the film. That’s a grey area that’s open to another topic.
As the center of the film, Leal’s a solid beautiful actress and can show all types of ranges. Kodjoe, Beckford, and Levy are certainly the right cast assembled for this film but after the shirts come off and the sex scenes are over, there’s not much added to their characters. Levy’s Quinton, in particular, isn’t well developed as the film bring out-of-nowhere new trait. By the time, the writers try to add different layers to their roles, it’s too little and too late. Wasted in their roles are Graham and Howell (as Zoe’s mom), who do more with their expressions than dialogue. The nature is sex addiction isn’t fully defined and when the third act arrives, much like Tyler Perry’s Temptation, there seemed to be a need to throw everything but the kitchen in order to satisfy fans. In the end, one would be addicted to stay away.
