It's a no-thrills thriller
Sara Matthews, the hapless heroine of the forgettable girlfriend-from-hell thriller The Roommate, is hot. So is her roomie, Rebecca. They're both stylish, wear the coolest designer dresses, and study artsy stuff at a fictional Los Angeles college, ULA. (It's UCLA without the, um, C.)
Sara Matthews, the hapless heroine of the forgettable girlfriend-from-hell thriller
The Roommate
, is hot.
So is her roomie, Rebecca.
They're both stylish, wear the coolest designer dresses, and study artsy stuff at a fictional Los Angeles college, ULA. (It's UCLA without the, um, C.)
Sara (Minka Kelly in a competent, if bland, turn) is a sweet, girl-next-door type from Des Moines. (That is if you live next door to a modeling agency.)
Trouble is, Rebecca (a slightly more lively Leighton Meester) isn't. The progeny of filthy-rich, alienated, West Coast liberals, she's a brat.
Oh, and she's a psycho killer.
Directed by an efficient, if seriously somnolent Christian E. Christiansen, The Roommate is the latest ego vs. alter-ego smackdown story repeated in endless fictions - from Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson" to Ingmar Bergman's Persona to Barbet Schroeder's delightfully trashy 1992 effort, Single White Female, which this new film rips off with abandon.
Think of it as Barbet-Lite.
It may be filed on the shelves as a mystery, but there's nothing the least bit mysterious or suspenseful about The Roommate.
We know exactly what's going to happen from the first frame, when Sara moves into her clean, shiny freshman dorm. She and Rebecca hit it off immediately. They're long-lost sisters. It's providential: Rebecca is an only child, while Sara's older sister died when she was 9.
The rest is as predictable as a paint-by-numbers kit: In a bid to become Sara's only friend, Rebecca uses blackmail and intimidation to get rid of everyone close to her roommate, including Sara's ridiculously randy, coed-hungry fashion design prof Roberts (Billy Zane). Only Sara's dreamy boyfriend, hunky rock drummer Stephen (Cam Gigandet) - who must be the most considerate and sensitive frat boy in history - sticks by her.
Christiansen tries to keep things realistic - Rebecca doesn't start off slicing and dicing folks right out of the gate. Her psychosis grows gradually and she resorts to violence only toward the film's end. Yet, the film is so understated, it barely has a pulse.
It also lacks any psychological insight. As cute as they are, Kelly and Meester don't have the acting chops to create real tension.
They play off each other as if they were made of Teflon.
Most disturbing, there's no mess, physical or emotional, in The Roommate. Its world is shockingly antiseptic.
Yet, what are psychological thrillers if not explorations of existential mess?
The sex is too clean in this movie, a line drawing with no flesh. And the girls' lipstick is never smudged, their hair never mussed - even when they're battling to the death.
Even the kitten they adopt is too clean. Where's its smelly cat litter? One keeps wondering. And if that's what you're thinking about at the movies, it's best to walk out.
The Roommate *½ (out of four stars)
Directed by Christian E. Christiansen. With Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, and Cam Gigandet. Distributed by Screen Gems.
Running time: 1 hour, 33 mins
Parent's guide: PG-13 (adult themes, violence, mild sexuality, murdered kitten)
Playing at: area theaters
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