Web of Desire (2009) starring Dina Meyer, Adrian Hough, Claudette Mink, William B. Davis, Vincent Gale, Terry Chen, James Kirk directed by Mark Cole Movie Review

Web of Desire (2009)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Dina Meyer in Web of Desire (2009)

The Finn Line

I am kind of gutted because whilst the set up of "Web of Desire" with a workaholic doctor not paying her family enough attention is pretty routine how it develops into something more akin to "Play Misty for Me" and "Fatal Attraction" is great. But then in trying to spin this into something even it goes seriously wrong as it over complicates things to the point that it becomes ridiculously contrived. If only they had reigned in the desire to add further twists then "Web of Desire" would have been a nice TV movie which delivered a twist on a bunny boiler storyline instead of ending up convoluted.

Dr. Beth Wyatt (Dina Meyer - Saw IV) has a need to help people, it means she is great at her job as a doctor in the ER and puts her in to contention for the position of head of ER. But her dedication leads to domestic difficulties as her husband Jake (Adrian Hough) and children resent the fact she is never around and is why she seeks friendship on a chatroom for medical professionals where she chats to Finn_74. But when in a minute of weakness she agrees to meet Finn (Claudette Mink) in real life she is stunned to discover that Finn is a woman, a woman who she had flirted with online. But that first meeting leads to another and before she knows Finn is not going away and forcing herself in to her and her family's lives.

Claudette Mink in Web of Desire (2009)

As I mentioned the whole set up to "Web of Desire" is a bit text book with Beth being a workaholic leading to domestic issues over her never being home. It is also quite cheesy especially when in an opening ER scene she decides to open the chest of a woman in ER to save her life by doing manual heart compressions leading her to have a loyal friend in the computer expert son of the woman she saved. Yes a big thing is made of the fact that the young man has great computer skills and it makes it obvious that at some point later on he will end up being called upon to help Beth out.

But after this rather stock opening "Web of Desire" does get good when after a family argument Beth ends up drinking with Finn and waking up the next morning naked in her bed. Not only that she receives a disc with footage of them in bed together and so starts the threats as Finn seems determined to have Beth in her life. It is a nice twist on the one night stand/ bunny boiler storyline as Finn won't stop, sending messages, phoning her and even showing up at the family home.

But then for some reason "Web of Desire" goes wrong because it over complicates matters as whilst we have Beth's rival at the ER acting suspicious things develop in such a ridiculous manner that you start laughing. As I already mentioned the young computer guy returns to help Beth out when it comes to what Finn has on her computer and that means ignore the weak techno mumbo jumbo he spouts. But it goes much further and before we know it we have what is a highly telegraphed dramatic ending which thanks to some terrible dialogue is seriously corny.

The biggest shame of all this is that as TV movies go the actual performances are not bad. Dina Meyer does a good job of playing Beth especially when everything starts spiralling out of control as Finn becomes threatening and Claudette Mink does an equally nice job of playing psychotic as Finn. But the supporting performances are not great and in fact some of them border on the cheesy thanks to thin characters with terrible dialogue. But the main two do a good job and are unfortunately let down by the fact the story spirals out of control.

What this all boils down to is that "Web of Desire" had the potential to be a decent take on the bunny boiler storyline with a twist but unfortunately because of too many twists it ends up too convoluted. And with good performances from Dina Meyer and Claudette Mink that is a big shame.


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