"The Roommate" flops as college thriller
By Joanne Santomauro
Last Friday night, my roommate and I went to the AMC Mercado 20 on Mission College Boulevard looking for some cheap thrills. We bought tickets for "The Roommate," Christian E. Christiansen's first Hollywood film.
The premise of the film is not unique to the psychological thriller genre. Minka Kelly ("Friday Night Lights"), daughter of Aerosmith guitarist Rick Dufay, stars as Sara, a first-year college student at the fictitious University of Los Angeles. Sara's roommate, Rebecca, played by Leighton Meester ("Gossip Girl") seems friendly at first. Soon after move-in however, Rebecca's psychotic personality becomes apparent.
Rebecca follows Sara with an insane infatuation. This violent obsession is sparked by Sara's new relationship with her muscular musician boyfriend, Stephen, played by Cam Gigandet ("Twilight"). The two begin dating after an unrealistic turn of events, wherein Stephen catches Sara's eye across a room of drunk strangers and ‘accidentally' spills punch on her shirt.
Essentially, the movie is a lackluster rip-off of "Single White Female," poorly combining elements of "Obsessed" and the TV show "Greek." The most attractive aspect of the movie was the well-known cast — Alyson Michalka, Cam Gigandet, Billy Zane and Danneel Harris play Rebecca's other victims in the film.
Although "The Roommate" features some startling scenes involving cats, dryers and belly rings that would make the weak-stomached feel queasy, the film failed to deliver any memorably scary, or even unsettling, thrills.
No interesting camera angles were used, the soundtrack was unoriginal and the whole film seemed to be shot through one cold white balance filter that made me feel like I was looking through blue cellophane.
One redeeming facet of the film was Meester's perfect casting as Rebecca. Temperamental, finicky and a little bit psychotic, Meester fits snugly into the Blair Waldorf character typecast from "Gossip Girl" that she is known for.
Unfortunately, compared to Meester, Kelly produces a dull performance; she seems as clueless as her character. No other characters were developed enough for the audience to fully invest themselves. The poorly written screenplay limited the talented group of actors and actresses.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, The Roommate is "devoid of chills, thrills, or even cheap titillation...The Roommate isn't even bad enough to be good." So, if you're looking for a good thrill, "The Roommate" isn't your answer.
Contact Joanne at jsantamauro@scu.edu or at (408) 554-1918.