Most of “Addicted” unfolds as straight-faced melodrama, with the screenplay by Christina Welsh and Ernie Barbarash depicting Zoe as a conflicted woman tentatively but instinctively exploring her sexual options. Spencer urges Zoe to dig deeper into long-repressed secrets from her past, symbolized by a permanent scar on her wrist. Meanwhile, Zoe’s perfect life starts to crumble - she’s MIA for her son’s soccer games as well as important business meetings arranged by her BFF and colleague, Brina (Emayatzy Corinealdi, criminally underused). When the intimacy of her relationship with Quinton becomes too much to handle (he tells her he loves her and asks her to leave Jason), Zoe heads for a local Atlanta club and picks up Corey (Tyson Beckford), a wild womanizer more than willing to fulfill at least some of her carnal desires with zero emotional attachment. Her insatiable craving for something more leads to a torrid affair with passionate Latin artist Quinton Canosa (William Levy), who entices her with his provocative paintings and slightly disturbing abandonment issues (his mother deserted him at a young age with no explanation, causing his father to commit suicide). Spencer (Tasha Smith), she and Jason have sex two to three times a day but it’s still not enough. As she confesses on her first visit to sympathetic therapist Dr. Attempts at serious sensuality in mainstream movies haven’t been a theatrical turn-on for some time now (next year’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” looks like a more significant test case), but Zane’s fan base could propel this slick, superficial yet mildly seductive drama to some frisky action in ancillary.Īrriving in theaters sans screenings for critics, the latest release from Lionsgate’s CodeBlack Films division could be glibly dismissed as “Tyler Perry’s Unfaithful,” if Perry hadn’t already been down a similar perils-of-infidelity road with the execrable “Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor.” Thankfully, “Addicted” proves far more forgiving of its tortured heroine, Zoe Reynard (Sharon Leal), a woman whose picture-perfect home life with her hunky high-school sweetheart husband, Jason (Boris Kodjoe), and two happy children mirrors her thriving career as a manager for contemporary artists.Īnyone able to look behind that idealized exterior would quickly discover Zoe’s inner life is a hot mess.

Based on the breakthrough novel by popular erotica author Zane, musicvid director Bille Woodruff’s adaptation bears the conflicted burden of tempting audiences with its attractive cast in various states of undress, while simultaneously trying to destigmatize the touchy topic of sex addiction. Billed as an erotic thriller but playing more like an R-rated daytime soap, “ Addicted” marks a rare but dramatically neutered opportunity to explore a black woman’s sexuality onscreen.

Addicted a novel by zane