Addicted to Love is a clever romantic comedy directed by Griffin Dunne. Sam (Matthew Broderick) is a midwestern astronomer who is madly in love with his childhood sweetheart Linda (Kelly Preston). When she goes off to New York and takes up with Anton (Tcheky Karyo), a French chef who owns a restaurant, he decides to get her back. Sam sets up shop spying on them from an empty loft opposite their Soho apartment. Then Maggie (Meg Ryan), a photographer and college artist, arrives to join him. She's Anton's jilted fiance who wants to wreck his life.
Although the set-up for this drama seems a bit far-fetched, the passions depicted on screen will resonate with most men and women. The screenplay by Robert Gordon conveys the thin line between love and hate in any obsessive relationship. Sam, who sees himself as a gentle, caring, and considerate person, is exposed to his nasty, deceitful, and vengeful shadow side. And Maggie, who relishes seeing herself as a street-savvy cynic, is exposed to her more vulnerable and romantic side.
The message of Addicted to Love is that in genuine affairs of the heart, nothing is ever predictable.