Definitely Not a Perfect Assistant
When David Wescott's (Chris Potter - She Drives Me Crazy) wife is suddenly taken seriously ill he is grateful that his assistant, Rachel (Josie Davis - Carolina Moon), steps up to help, not only at the office but also at home where she helps take care of David's daughter. But for Rachel it is the moment she has been waiting for because she is completely and utterly obsessed with David and even has fantasies of becoming his wife. Now with an opportunity to make her move she plans to wheedle her way into David's personal life, ruthlessly dealing with anyone who dares to get in her way or ruin her plans.
So "The Perfect Assistant" is your text book made for TV movie about a woman who is both obsessed with and delussional about a man and will go to scary lengths to make him hers. The fact that here we have Rachel being the assistant to the man she is obsessed with is of little consequence as this is a text book obsessed woman movie and nothing more. That means she murders, manipulates and schemes her way into her boss's life, silencing those who are a threat, poisoning those who could get in the way and becoming so pivotal that her boss can't function without her. The fact we have a storyline which starts with David's wife becoming seriously ill and Rachel stepping in to look after his daughter isn't new either because all this means is that she manipulates her way in to the child's life as well.
The irony of this is that whilst in storyline "The Perfect Assistant" doesn't offer anything new it could have worked as an average take on this sort of obsessed woman drama. But then we have other issues starting with a lot of terrible and flat characters which almost feel like they have come out of a pantomime with over the top facial expressions. When David's business partner looks annoyed at Rachel she pouts and glares in a way which is hilariously cheesy. And David is no better because he must be blind not to notice that Rachel is both clingy and unhinged.
Talking of Rachel well Josie Davis is the movie's one positive and that is purely because she has captivating eyes. When it comes to Davis' actual performance it is so over the top that you half expect her to let rip with an evil cackle when she sets about dealing with a threat to her plans. You can't place the whole blame on Davis because director Douglas Jackson decides to let us into Rachel's mind and hear her evil thoughts which are sublimely bad. It makes Rachel such an over the top character that you do end up laughing at how bad she is and are really just waiting for her inevitable breakdown when her evil plans are uncovered.
What this all boils down to is that "The Perfect Assistant" ends up a bad take on the psycho woman storyline which brings nothing new to the often used story of an obsessed woman and in fact goes over the top when it comes to how obsessed she is.
