Rather unusual movie in the context of recent Hollywood, which with a just slightly harder edge and less sympathetic soft-edged casting than Ryan and Broderick could have achieved a delicious nastiness. The scenes of the two of them wallowing in their voyeurism with the slightly hazy images of the camera obscura forming a giant backdrop are an occasionally superb portrayal of unabashed spying and scopophilia. The descent of Karyo from stylish, self-confident restauranteur to an unemployed disaster encased in plaster, desperate for someone to scratch his back, is surprisingly unsentimental and clear-eyed. Even the obligatory happy ending doesn't dilute the pervasive grimness as much as it might have done. The film has a gritty, often intriguing visual look, helped along by Ryan's odd off-kilter wardrobe - it stops short of truly hard-hitting commentary and is sometimes too sentimental or prone to knockabout comedy at the cost of pursuing its central possibilities, but it's distinctive at least.
Review of Addicted to Love
