No sexy secrets here
The Lifetime adaptation of Sue Silverman’s memoir, Love Sick, provides a mostly thoughtful rendering of difficult subjects
By Beth Harrington
Published: May 13th, 2008 | 1:50pm
I admit I was slightly apprehensive when I saw that the subtitle for the Lifetime movie adaptation of Sue Silverman’s memoir, Love Sick, had been changed from the spiritual sounding ‘one woman’s journey through sexual addiction’ to the racier ‘secrets of a sex addict.’ After all, those who have read Silverman’s memoir are aware that it is anything but the spicy diary of a woman who can’t say no to every man, but rather the emotionally-involving tale of a woman who turns to compulsive sexual activity in order to make sense of a life turned upside-down by horrific childhood sexual abuse. What readers may also remember is Silverman’s knack for prose that is elegant and articulate yet never eroticizes its content.
In its own way, the movie version manages to pull off the same technique. All the ingredients for repeated sexy seductions are present, yet something goes wrong in the blender and the scenes fall flat, seem false. ‘There is no free will,’ a prospective European partner — the word lover seems inappropriate — darkly insists to Sue (played by Sally Pressman of Army Wives). ‘What’s your pleasure?’ another asks at a bar, to which she can only reply, ‘That was supposed to be my line.’ The real romance exists only in Sue’s mind as she fixates on these men and making herself attractive to them, as depicted in her ritualistic selection of clothing and applying of perfume before her encounters.
Love Sick also intelligently analyzes the dynamics in a person’s life and relationships that allow sexual addiction to occur. While Sue miraculously escapes the horrors of her childhood by marrying a man who is stable and nonviolent, he is also emotionally unavailable, more married to his work than to her. A scene of Sue lying in bed with one of her partners asking, ‘Was it good?’ juxtaposed with a later one in which she asks the same question after hosting a dinner party for her husband, speaks volumes about her role in his life.
As Sue’s life begins to unravel, the pace of the movie speeds up a bit, perhaps too much, when she consults a therapist. He decides that as long as she is not “sexually sober,” she must check into a mental health clinic. In this environment, she finds both temptation and redemption, yet chooses the latter, and is lastly shown sharing her struggles with others through her book.
Love Sick could have benefited from more careful crafting to show the components of what is actually at work in Sue’s addict mind. Is it the sex itself that is addicting, or is her craving an emotional one for love in its most readily available and easily mistakable form? The movie’s message also might have been more powerful if Sue’s own history of incest had been mentioned earlier on, rather than being dropped on the viewer two-thirds of the way through the film as a secret that feels unresolved at the film’s end. Yet overall, Sally Pressman is sympathetic and appealing as young Sue Silverman and the movie will hopefully direct attention to the author’s commendable work in spreading addiction and sexual abuse awareness.
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Love Sick will be reaired on Lifetime May 26th and June 3rd, 2008
Issue #35
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