The Roommate

Oddly monikered Danish director Christian E. Christiansen comes a cropper in his Hollywood debut as The Roommate covers all the bases that you would want in the “(insert noun here) from Hell" genre of film, but fails to add little more. In the film College student Sara (Minka Kelly) shares a dorm with Rebecca (Leighton Meester), but before long Rebecca develops an obsession with her and soon begins to take things to the extreme level. All the stalker on the loose favourites are covered here; Other roommates get attacked, boyfriends are scared away and a kitty gets it (Boo!). The problem is Christiansen’s direction is so bland that, with the exception of a neat shadows in the shower sequence, there’s virtually no thrills to be had at all. Hmm, kind of a problem for a thriller that. This is actually quite frustrating as it’s been a while since we’ve had this kind of film and this could have been so much better. However, it just never gets going and, with the exception of Meester, the acting is pretty poor with Kelly being the worst of the bunch. Apart from the nice tagline (“8 million roommates. Which one will you get?”) there just isn’t anything new here to improve this into a half decent film at best. I doubt Christiansen had anything to do with it, but he can at least thank Meester for saving this from becoming a total turkey as she gives the best performance in the film by a long way despite being hamstrung by a dodgy script. You actually feel sympathy for her character when you find out why she acts like she does and it’s a huge oversight that this element of the film isn’t fully explored. If so, at least we would have had a bit more to talk about. As it is, you are just left with the game of guessing whether that’s Kelly acting or someone’s just thrown a chair into room.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

Worth watching for Meester, but even then it’s still a struggle. Rating: 5/10.