I happen to watch this German film because a friend of mine, who has an amazing knack of choosing bad films, happened to have a DVD of OBSESSION when I recently visited him. He asked me if I wanted to watch it and having suffered from his previous choices (THE FAMILY STONE, THE SKELETON KEY...), I wasn't about to say yes but then he gave me no other options and I had to sit through another miserable cinematic experience. And, wow, this one was bad! 40 minutes into the movie and my friend looked at me and said that he couldn't follow anything and nothing made sense. I couldn't agree more with him. The story and or direction rarely made any sense whatsoever. It tried to be eclectic and cute but ended up looking amateurish and confused. What was Daniel Craig thinking when he agreed to do this? Something was probably lost in translation here because the level of absurdity over the Daniel Craig character's obsession with the Niagara tightrope walkers was risible and not credible at all. We couldn't take any of it seriously, and that includes the dialogue, the acting, the flat direction and whatever story there was here. It is good hearted but that's not enough to make up for the absurdity of it all.There's a love scene at the beginning which made both of us laugh out loud at the same time. We went "Well, that was fast".Suffice to say, my friend was really bummed out after watching this inexplicably awful film, more than me because, knowing my friend's luck with movies, my expectations were already pretty low to begin with.

yet baffling as well. Often times when viewing foreign films which I love to do, I realize that there is such a Huge difference between American movies and cinematic "ART." That said, with "Obsession," we get a tale of one woman who at the start of the film is having a relationship w/ one man. Through coincidence, meeting the second man, she is honest and lets him know that they cannot have an affair. However, it is clear to see that as she keeps asking her boyfriend to "..look at me," that something is missing from their relationship. With the second man/character you see a void filled. He is sweet, caring, fun, loving. Her boyfriend is anal, entrenched in his work & very different from the second man. That said, once the female character loves both men, I get frustrated at her lack of compassion. Her character becomes placid, almost child like about the way she is treating these two men who love her. Why? She explains (to John, the second love played by Daniel Craig, who asks her to be only w/ him as he feels tortured) that she would miss Pierre if she left him for John. Quel Selfish! O.K. she is having more than just cake to eat, she is having the entire buffet. Her wall of disregard for their feelings makes for an unsettling and frustrating viewing towards the end. And the end will either tick you off or leave you going, "what?"

What a disappointment! Three cardboard characters thrown together: the hot, co-dependent German girl (played by the eternally underrated Heike Makatsch), who inexplicably becomes torn between two whiny dweebs -- a fragile French wimp (never saw this actor before - competent, but way too doe-eyed) and an overly emotional, childish, uninteresting nothing (pre-Bond Daniel Craig, not so much acting as impersonating Rod Steiger). A series of contrived situations bring these three together, in a sort of Männer for Morons... Painful to watch, but good for an occasional unintentional laugh... Geeze, I have never written such a scathing review...

Somewhat of a chick-flick, since there were a few too many cute coincidences......still, I loved this film! Along the lines of Amelie and Chungking Express, it was sweet,involves stalking, is darkly funny, AND has a love story. Why does true love always seem to make stalking OK? Miriam witnesses John MacHale fighting the police in a train station, and testifies in court that he was only trying to help. John was trying to help an elderly Russian man chased down by police....for stealing buttons! From that moment when she testifies, John is obsessed with Miriam. He goes to her house, yet admits plainly he was looking for her, so she lets down her guard. He starts following her, tells her his story about why he is in Berlin. He is researching a photo of tightrope walkers, which he thinks has something to do with his grandmother's death. He also befriends the Russian man and his brother, and they help him in his search and with wooing Miriam. John MacHale was kind of creepy in his devotion to Miriam, but he came off as sweet,none the less. I mean, from the beginning he is saying things fit for a soap-opera to her: She asks simply if he is staying in Berlin,and he right away says "Are you afraid i'll leave?", at once turning the conversation serious and emotional. But once you figure he is harmless, it would be hard to resist such devotion.I figure Miriam fell for him because the boyfriend Pierre was such an unemotional bastard. They must have some sort of bond, but he is kind of cold. John is all emotion. Once John went away, Miriam realizes she misses him all right. He sewed elephants on a jacket for her (awww)...like a puppy dog he follows her everywhere, asking "Can I come?" It's kind of selfish, but Miriam must like being so wanted. Even though she refuses him again and again, John doesn't give up. I was expecting something Fatal Attraction like because of the title and blurb on Netflix, so i was pleasantly surprised.The rest of the movie is Miriam having feelings for both men, and about John's search for the identity of the tightrope walker. It all ties together beautifully. One moment this movie is sad, the next it's surreal and funny. It's not terribly realistic, but romantics might like it. Parts I loved: The Russian brother who steals buttons just because they "glistened so nicely"...and John put those same kind of buttons on Miriam's jacket. John and Miriam eating candy, watching a present they set out on a fence, waiting for someone to take it. "Sunglasses for a one eyed monster"