Talking Pictures

Rich Bonaduce reviews “The Roomate”

Rich’s Quickie: Leighton Meetser is convincing in a decent thriller hampered with a weak ending.

G-day, Mate! Otherwise known as “Single White College-age Female,” this film walks familiar territory while trying to make the best of the genre’s clichés: A shower scene that you think you’ve seen before is done just a touch differently, and the body count doesn’t stack as high as you’d expect. “The Roommate” opts instead for some creepy scenes fueled mostly by Leighton Meester’s endearing but unstable “Rebecca,” who develops quite the obsession with her roommate “Sarah”, played by Minka Kelly (figures; Kelly stole my heart in a single scene as “Autumn” at the end of “500 Days of Summer”. The first act is a little weak, with Rebecca becoming instantly focused on Sarah, acting weird upon the very first moment, nearly tipping her hand that something is amiss too soon. Fortunately the second act gets genuinely creepy…

Gimmie some Room! Unfortunately, the third act goes right off the rails. Not the that first two were perfect, mind you, replete with the usual impossibly rad frat party populated with impossibly beautiful people, a college-level party band sounding like a fully-polished seasoned touring act, and lead characters whose hair, nails and makeup are perfect, dressing in the latest fashionable mini-skirts throughout (not to mention the now nearly obligatory but PG-13 lesbian scene). It gave in to just as many clichés as it avoided, and it also didn’t help that Cam Gigandet showed up as “Stephen,” he of the perpetual and forced smolder; or that Alyson Michalka shows up as… well, as virtually every other character she’s ever played (this time called “Tracy”). But Rebecca finally goes full psycho with predictable results, including a chick fight edited so poorly you can barely tell what’s going on. And with a final scene reminiscent of “Poltergeist” but way out of sync with the tone of the preceding movie, “The Roommate” deserved a better ending. Still, before that, it had promise.

Movie Grade: C+

Rated PG-13
Director: Christian E. Christiansen
Writer: Sonny Mallhi

Tags: Rich Bonaduce reviews, talking pictures, the roommate
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