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Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Roommate



A STILL FROM THE MOVIE 
Critic's Rating: 
Cast: Leightone Meester, Minka Kelly, Cam Gigandet, Billy Zane
Direction: Christian E. Christiansen
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 1 hour 31 minutes
Readers Rating: 
More from The Roommate

Photogallery
Official Website
Crisp chick flick 

Story: Small town girl Sarah (Minka Kelly) moves to a college in Los Angeles, chasing her dreams to become a high-profile fashion designer. She finds a friendly roommate in rich girl Rebecca (Leighton Meester) and is all set to find love and a future for herself, until she discovers her roommate's freaky side: over-friendly, over-possessive, psychotic. But is she dangerous too? 

Movie Review: The film is a re-make of Barbet Schroeder's chilling 1992 thriller, Single White Female which went on to became a cult amongst chick flicks. But don't compare it with the classic because the jagged edged bonding betweenBridget Fonda and the sweetly psychotic Jennifer Jason Leigh is hard to match. Closer home, we have had a recent desi re-make in Jagmohan Mundra's The Apartment with Tanushree Dutta and Neetu Chandra reprising the roles of the frenemies. You can safely compare The Roommate with this one! It's better.

Both Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester are TV stars who make their screen debut with this film and actually don't fare too badly. If Kelly's Sara is suitably shy and lonesome as the small towner who tries to fit in with with the cosmo cult, thenBeverly Hills brat Meeter's Rebecca is the enigma we must fathom in due course. The two complement each other well while playing the dangerous cat and mouse game despite the overt bonhomie.

Of course, it is Rebecca who has a better graph as she moves from BFF (best friend forever) to sinister stalker who can't have her roomie bonding with anyone else, other than her. Threats and violence is perpetrated against anyone who dares to come between her and her obsession, be it Sara's offending tutor (Billy Zane), her new love interest (Cam Gigandet) or her set of other friends. Even the pet kitty isn't spared, nor is her ex-boyfriend.

The film is a languorous and stylish investigation of a disturbed young mind and creates a character that evokes sympathy rather than distaste. Yes, Rebecca needs help, but she can't find it in Sara, can she?

Watch it for the moody pace and for the performances by the two girls. 

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