THE ROOMMATE DVD (2011)

SYNOPSIS: She's cute. She's loyal. She's psychotic. And, unfortunately for college freshman Sara (Minka Kelly), she's "The Roommate." When Sara arrives at school, she finds new romance with Stephen (Cam Gigandet) and forms a fast friendship with her roommate Rebecca (Leighton Meester). What begins as camaraderie soon turns creepy, and Sara comes face to face with the terrifying realization that her new best friend is obsessive, unbalanced...and maybe even a killer!

MOVIE REVIEW:

How the cast and filmmakers ever deceived themselves into thinking that they were making a psychosexual thriller by way of ‘Single White Female’ for a new generation of viewers is quite beyond us. Indeed, as we sat through all 93 minutes of this yawn-inducing fest, the only thing we could think about is how consistently awful this ‘thriller’ really is- notwithstanding its pretty cast of Leighton Meester and Minka Kelly.

Set in the fictional University of Los Angeles (or ULA for short), Kelly plays an Iowa girl Sara whose new dorm buddy is the born-and-bred in Beverly Hills Rebecca (Meester). And as convention would dictate, writer Sonny Malhi first sets Rebecca up as the perfect gal-pal for Sara, before becoming overprotective and downright possessive- and that includes demanding to know where Sara is at all hours, insisting on hanging out with her 24/7 and threatening her slightly rebellious pal Tracy (Alyson Michalka) when she keeps Sara out too late.

Neither does Rebecca take too kindly to an arts professor (Billy Zane) who has the hots for Sara or the frat boy drummer Steven (Can Gigandet) she is in love with. It’s a trashy, pulpy premise- but in attempting to appeal to a teenage crowd, director Christian E. Christiansen has sanitised it to the point where it becomes limp. There is little sexual tension between Sara and Rebecca, and what is shown barely qualifies as primary-school jealousy. Worse still,the portrayal of Rebecca’s psychotic qualities comes off as juvenile and downright infantile.

Christiansen has also no sense of pacing, so his thriller moves along at such a sluggish pace with too many contemporary soft-rock songs that there is nothing thrilling or exciting about it. The cast too are equally insipid- Meester in particular fails miserably in trying to capture the intensity of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s psycho gal in the much superior 1992 movie from which this unofficial remake draws its inspiration.

There is nothing here on display except two hot girls- Meester and Kelly- but that is little consolation for the disappointment that ‘The Roommate’ delivers. Had it more gleefully embraced its B-movie origins, this could have been so much sexier and edgier. As it is, there is no tension or suspense throughout its duration- so much so that this is one movie which deserves to be locked up alone, so do yourself a favour and give this a miss

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There are about 6 min of Deleted and Alternate Scenes on this DVD. The Deleted Scenes seem to be the leftovers from the scenes already in the movie, and are rightly removed for brevity.  There is an alternate title sequence, but nothing worth your interest.

The DVD also comes with a Feature Commentary with Danish director Christiansen. Despite the outcome of the movie, it’s still interesting to hear about some of the challenges he faced working on his first English-language debut, as well as the PG-13 restriction he was given to work his film around.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio makes little use of the back speakers, leaving most of the audio to the front and centre speakers. Visuals are clean and sharp, and the light and dark tones especially during the dimly lit scenes are well-balanced.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Gabriel Chong

Posted on 18 August 2011