DVD Reviews

The Roommate – DVD Review

By Patrick Luce May 23, 2011, 22:27 GMT

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! ...more

While The Roommate tries hard to be suspenseful, the film fails to break free of its own clichés and a story that will easily remind many of another film involving single white female roommates.

The PG-13 rating also hurts the film’s chances of getting too terrifying – even in the couple of chilling scenes the it manages to get to the screen.

The film was directed by Christian E. Christiansen and was written by Sonny Mallhi (who was an executive producer for the great thriller The Strangers). It stars a cast of beautiful people (who are all very fashionably dressed) including Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl), Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Cam Gigandet (Burlesque and Easy A), Aly Michalka (Easy A and Hellcats), Danneel Ackles, Frances Fisher, Tomas Arana, and Billy Zane.

The plot is pretty much a paint-by-numbers story that follows fashion designer hopeful Sara Matthews (Kelly) as she begins her college career in the big city of Los Angeles.  Arriving early, she meets Tracy Morgan (Michalka) who quickly invites her to a frat party where she gets to meet and fall for Stephen (Gigandet) - who is the drummer in a frat band and looks like he has been in college for about a decade.

Returning drunk to her dorm room, Sara meets her roommate Rebecca (Meester). Rebecca is an art student and Los Angeles native. She is also a little more than jealous of Tracy trying to be friends with Sara and of Sara's old friend from home Irene - who happens to be a fashion designer.

Sara also has a run-in with a pervy fashion instructor played by Zane, and it is easy to see there will be some kind of bad situation coming soon thanks to the way Zane leers at Sara as she begs to be added to his class.

The film moves along at a pretty predictable pace with Rebecca getting nuttier by the minute and extremely obsessed with being Sara’s only friend. Rebecca goes off her rocker pretty early on beating Tracy in a shower; blackmailing Zane’s instructor after he tries to sleep with Sara; and even crossing a few lines with Sara’s ex-boyfriend. You also have to feel bad for the poor little kitten Sara brings home one night. I think that cat would have preferred Sara just take her to the pound.

Finally, Sara starts to notice that Rebecca just might not be right in the head, and moves in with Stephen at his frat house. This serves a final straw for Rebecca and the films ends in a nice showdown between the two roommates.

The Roommate is not a good movie, but it isn’t horrible. The acting is solid, and Meester has some decent moments where she is a bit chilling – such as her treatment of the kitten or when she beats herself to get some caring time from Sara.

Kelly (who is extremely good on Friday Night Lights and Parenthood) does decent work with this movie, but isn’t given much more to do than just stand around looking pretty. The same can be said for Gigandet. The actor is way too old for the role, but knows how to show up and save the day.

Aside from the fact The Roommate feels predictable from start to finish (anyone who has seen 1992’s Single White Female will know all the twists before the opening credits finish), the movie is really hurt by the PG-13 rating. It had moments where it could rise above its cliché, but was strangled by the need not to push too far. Meester seemed to have the acting chops to go full tilt crazy, and with an R rating there might have been more for the actress to do with the character.

Since Meester’s fame primarily rest with her role on Gossip Girl and Kelly is mostly known from the television adaptation of Friday Night Lights, the producers might have felt rating the film for a teen friendly audience was the way to go. Instead, it feels like a really watered down version of a much better movie (if you haven’t seen Single White Female, I recommend giving it a try).

The DVD comes with “Dangerously Sexy Special Features” that include a commentary from the director and some deleted/alternate scenes – which do nothing to save the film.

If you like your thrillers light or just want to watch a decent movie on a rainy day, The Roommate isn’t a total waste of time. The film looks good and the acting is solid. It just fails to break any new ground in the “crazy stalker roommate” genre or offer any real reason to pick it over the past films it tries to imitate.

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