Parents' Guide to Addicted

If all you're looking for is plenty of eye candy, this film will deliver, but don't expect anything more. A decade before E.L. James' sexed-up fanfiction 50 Shades of Grey became a cultural phenomenon, Zane's best-selling 2001 novel Addicted was the popular piece of erotica that launched a cable series and dozens of titillating novels. Mainstream America may not be aware of Zane's empire, but she's one of the most successful -- if also controversial -- black authors in the publishing world, so it's kind of surprising that it took eight years for Lionsgate (which optioned the novel in 2006) to translate Addicted from page to screen. Unfortunately, the result wasn't worth the wait, not matter how attractive the cast is or how competent their performances.

The problem with Addicted is the script; it's a weak adaptation that doesn't properly invest you in Zoe's home life (other than to make clear that she'd have nothing to complain about in the bedroom if it weren't for her own bottomless need) or her affairs. Leal is a talented actress, but in this she just basically walks around in her Olivia Pope-ish wardrobe thinking about or actually having sex. Zoe's addiction somehow gets worse even as she's under the care of a therapist, but it's never particularly believable, emotional, or heartbreaking -- like Diane Lane's affair was in Unfaithful. And speaking of Unfaithful (a far superior film), Levy might have beautiful eyes and amazing abs, but he's not nearly the seducer that Olivier Martinez was, and the former Dancing with the Stars stud doesn't have the acting chops to sell the brooding artist role.