The Advocate
'Roommate' Lacks Thrills, SuspenseFriday, March 18, 2011 By Lizsandra Pena - News Editor
All movie-makers have to do to get the audience to love a horror film is to make it engaging and suspenseful. Unfortunately, this was not done in the movie "The Roommate."The movie was directed by Danish filmmaker Christian E. Christiansen from a script by Sonny Mallhi. "The Roommate" is a psychological thriller about a deranged college freshman (Leighton Meester) who becomes obsessed with her new roommate, Sara (Minka Kelly). Sara is a small-town girl who goes to the University of Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of being a fashion designer and unfortunately encounters a roommate who is clingy to the point of psychotic. The main character, Sara, went after what she wanted, but unfortunately she wasn’t very bright. Her roommate’s weirdo behavior should have been obvious to her. Everything was spelled out for her, and she chose not to react or tell anybody what was going on. The fact that she walks around for the majority of the movie ignoring it is shocking. Kelly makes Sara a terrible one-note character throughout the film. If Sara’s terrified by this situation, she certainly isn’t showing it. She is bland and slightly frightened. Supporting actors Cam Gigandet, Billy Zane and Aly Michalka also fade into the background. Meester, on the other hand, doesn’t do a half-bad job at playing the disturbed villain, but there’s really nothing she could do with such a poorly written role. As for Rebecca, that character is just ruined by ill-timed divulges. Rather than exposing her layers piece-by-piece, chunks of information was tossed at the audience randomly. Mallhi just gives everything away far too soon. Another big issue with this movie is the fact that it’s almost a straight knock-off of "Single White Female" but told in an even more colorless, A-to-Z manner with very little suspense, no clever twists, and no visual style. "The Roommate" is a movie worth skipping. The film is remarkable in its emptiness. The only thing that can make someone remotely happy is the decent soundtrack. Rating: 2 out of 5 stars |