not a movie you wanna watch with the family... or anyone for that matter

Love Object is a beautiful film. It has some moments where it's meant to be beautiful and some where it's meant to be cold, and it achieves all the moods it has to achieve at every time it has to. It has realistic characters that are easy to relate to and oddball characters you would encounter in life. Production value is sharp, as is the dialogue and wit. Our actors look made for their roles. So why is it in my Bad Movie Reviews? The plot is about a technical writer who falls in love with a woman on an advertising postcard. He orders a silicon doll off the internet that looks just like her, and it starts to rule his life.

Yes. This movie is about a sex doll. Who in their right mind would buy such a thing? I bought it a few months back because, in all honesty, it's a fantastic film. You can't get over the fact that it's about a sex doll though. The story unfolds quite well too. Kenneth is s star technical writer at his firm because he works around the clock. He's just been handed a giant project to take up his next three weeks. It's no great concern because he has no personal life, until a co-worker introduces him to Nikki, a sex doll he can order online for $10,000. He models it to look like his new typist at work. Basically, Ken needs to get lucky because his work is struggling. He's too obsessed with this doll to get anything done.

The doll arrives and after a clumsy first "use," he tries to call the company to return it. Of course they don't accept. That would be really gross. $10,000 later, he realizes it's not companionship. Can he make it like companionship though? He analyzes it and makes a manual for how to use it. No more is he just screwing it and being dissatisfied. He kisses, sleeps with, and talks to it. His work improves tenfold. His typist, Lisa, can't keep up and falls behind. She faces termination, but Kenneth helps her learn how to use the new computer and she adapts. He learns about her likes and dislikes and manifests them into Nikki.

Time progresses and we start to wonder if he's really manifesting Lisa in Nikki or Nikki in Lisa. That's basically the premise of the film. I probably shot that off too soon, but it speaks volumes on how it relates to real people. How often to we make people we desire into personalities and tastes we desire. How often do we let our desires get the best of us and lose out on the good things in life, like disagreements and different tastes? Kenneth does just this. He adapts to the likes of Lisa and practice dates Nikki. In this respect it's uniquely like a romantic comedy without the soul. Of course Nikki seems to take on her own life. Nights come where Kenneth forgets to bring her to bed, but she ends up next to him, hand cuffed, by morning.

Kenneth gets a promotion and accidentally runs across the original postcard that started his flame with Nikki. He stuffs it in a manual when he sees Lisa coming. We know this is a bad idea. Lisa is taken from a temp to full time too, and Kenneth takes her around town to shop for new clothes and get her hair done. Now Lisa looks like Nikki. Distance grows at home. Nikki and Kenneth are hitting the fan, while Lisa is becoming a close, new prospect. Kenneth, however, is stuck with this dominatrix he's made of Nikki. He boxes her up and tries to ignore his predicament as he falls into a date or two with Lisa.

There would be no tension if Kenneth wasn't going crazy though-- so yes, he does. He's haunted by Nikki, but is actually dating Lisa. His relationship blossoms and he even gets invited into Lisa's. He's really making progress, but we also learn that he's in love with only one dimension of Lisa. He doesn't know about her sloppy apartment or her snowboard. He's appalled when he finds a tongue ring in her mouth and a tattoo on her breast. His whole life changes when he sees her VCR blinking 12:00. She's not Nikki. She's not what he thought she was or what he's made her into. He soon realizes that there's really only one way to make her into what he wants.

He does what he must. He chops up Nikki. This is, for him, really like murder. He drops her parts in a dumpster and tries to make his life with Lisa work. She discovers the card with Nikki on it. She's even more upset when she finds out Nikki's a sex doll. Lisa is her own person. Kenneth has no control. His life takes turn after turn. His life is going out of control. He can't afford another doll. He has only one solution: make Lisa into his doll... literally. His plan is quite simple, but in the process he does have to kill his neighbor. It's a pretty small price to pay because he was a creep. Embalming fluid kids. How else can we make a human into a doll? Don't ask me where a common man can acquire so much fluid, but the plan goes as scheduled. Lisa's kept for days and dressed as Nikki. She has no escape.

The climax is one which leaves you with two directions. You want a little more out of it, but you also can't be more delighted with it. In a twist, Kenneth manages to get away with it. Lisa manages to turn the tables and while she's being drained of blood she climbs on top of Kenneth to kill him. Just then the cops bust in (investigating the neighbor's death) and they instinctively shoot up Lisa. You can't blame them. Kenneth is taken back at work and the cover story makes itself. He gets his bonus and he takes it right to the website. Nikki is back in action. Kenneth, in the meantime, falls for a new girl.