There is a revealing image in the film when the former orphan and waif, Rachel Partson, is playing with a cutaway doll house. This is the orphan's ideal of what she never had after she lost both of her parents. Now, as an adult, Rachel wants to reclaim her birthright with the man of her dreams, her boss named David Wescott and his little daughter Isabelle.
Rachel grew up is as loving a family as one could hope for, given her circumstances as an orphan. But it was never good enough for little Rachel, as she was envious of Nora, the girl she grew up with in the kind family that provided for her. Sadly, Nora will be one of the two murder victims of the deranged Rachel in her maniacal obsession with David. Nora's big mistake was to discover the DVD of the home movie of David that Rachel stole and to dare to insult Rachel by calling her out for her aberrant behavior.
With her leverage as David's "executive assistant," Rachel uses the inside information she gleans at the office to worm her way into David's life. After murdering David's wife Carol through lethal injection at the hospital, Rachel makes her move. Her biggest coup is to land a trip to New York with David and his little daughter Isabelle. She does so by duping the kind, immigrant nanny Ileana and by poisoning Judith Manion. But in the film's turning point in the New York hotel, Rachel makes the fatal mistake of kissing him. That moment is the start of David's awakening to a monster in his midst.
Stylistically, the film's most ingenious moments were brief soliloquys, wherein we hear Rachel thinking out loud as she masterminds her plot to woo and win David. Whether alone in the bathroom or the elevator, Rachel reveals to us the workings of her wacko mind as she thinks aloud. Her mind keep coming back to the notion that David loves her, despite all the evidence to the contrary. When Rachel blurts out lines like "This can't happen!," we know that she means business!
The best of the secondary characters is the wily Wally, one of Rachel's co-workers in the Wescott firm. Wally is the office gossip, who reveals information which Rachel uses to blackmail Grady, who drops out of the competition for the Kirkland account that will save David's company.
When Rachel crashes the party at the celebratory banquet, she is actually correct when she tells the group at gunpoint that that the employees should be grateful to her for saving their jobs and avoiding eating convenience store sandwiches while standing in the unemployment line. But her means to the end suggest that her talents would be more suited to a long-term stay in a mental institution. It is there that Rachel Partson may finally get the help that she needs.
Rachel grew up is as loving a family as one could hope for, given her circumstances as an orphan. But it was never good enough for little Rachel, as she was envious of Nora, the girl she grew up with in the kind family that provided for her. Sadly, Nora will be one of the two murder victims of the deranged Rachel in her maniacal obsession with David. Nora's big mistake was to discover the DVD of the home movie of David that Rachel stole and to dare to insult Rachel by calling her out for her aberrant behavior.
With her leverage as David's "executive assistant," Rachel uses the inside information she gleans at the office to worm her way into David's life. After murdering David's wife Carol through lethal injection at the hospital, Rachel makes her move. Her biggest coup is to land a trip to New York with David and his little daughter Isabelle. She does so by duping the kind, immigrant nanny Ileana and by poisoning Judith Manion. But in the film's turning point in the New York hotel, Rachel makes the fatal mistake of kissing him. That moment is the start of David's awakening to a monster in his midst.
Stylistically, the film's most ingenious moments were brief soliloquys, wherein we hear Rachel thinking out loud as she masterminds her plot to woo and win David. Whether alone in the bathroom or the elevator, Rachel reveals to us the workings of her wacko mind as she thinks aloud. Her mind keep coming back to the notion that David loves her, despite all the evidence to the contrary. When Rachel blurts out lines like "This can't happen!," we know that she means business!
The best of the secondary characters is the wily Wally, one of Rachel's co-workers in the Wescott firm. Wally is the office gossip, who reveals information which Rachel uses to blackmail Grady, who drops out of the competition for the Kirkland account that will save David's company.
When Rachel crashes the party at the celebratory banquet, she is actually correct when she tells the group at gunpoint that that the employees should be grateful to her for saving their jobs and avoiding eating convenience store sandwiches while standing in the unemployment line. But her means to the end suggest that her talents would be more suited to a long-term stay in a mental institution. It is there that Rachel Partson may finally get the help that she needs.