Roman

I say it is a good compliment to Lucky Mckee's first story "May" but not even close to the quality of it. It's a decent film if your a fan of Lucky's. It seemed as if Roman was filmed before "May" and released after it. The pace is slow, but i believe this is deliberate. This story does not waste time, in a good way, with fluff. You can very quickly feel what Roman is about. If I did not already know about this story beforehand I would believe it was real. I like stories that can toe the line of real but still keep me interested which is the makings of a good movie. Now that being said, I expected better from the team of Bettis and McKee, even without an extreme budget this was a story that could have been more. I blame the editor. Movie are destroyed or saved by editing. I expected better story development. The idea was great but the translation was muffled

Roman (Lucky McKee) is a lonely guy who becomes obsessed with a young woman (Kristen Bell). That obsession goes horribly awry, but things quickly turn around when Roman strikes up a romance with a young artist named Eva (Nectar Rose).

The movie is considered a spin-off of 2002 cult hit "May". In "May", Angela Bettis played the title role and Lucky McKee directed, roles which have been switched for Roman. It has been said to be a reversed gender version of May, which tells the story of a lonely person who has an obsession with a random stranger. To call it a spin-off seems a stretch, though, as there are no recurring characters.

What this film taught me: Saturday is chili dogs in the cemetery day. But also, Angela Bettis can make a fine film. Throwing in a "Harvey" reference for good measure, and using some amazing body part props, she constructs a good suspense horror romance. Of course, McKee wrote it, but once she has the camera it's her baby.

Surprisingly, Nectar Rose outshines Kristen Bell. I feel little sympathy for Bell, but take a great delight in Rose and her character's actions. McKee, of course, also shows he can act, and plays a perfectly creepy gentleman.

"Roman" takes the form of a thriller, but functions more as a surprisingly low key character study. An isolated, sad, socially awkward young man works at a factory where he has no friends, and lives alone in a depressing apartment. His only joy is watching a beautiful young neighbor he fantasizes about. In a stroke of luck he ends up on a date with her, but things go horribly, tragically wrong. Before long he has struck up a relationship with a new, free-spirited but death obsessed young artist who has moved into the building, but he remains unable to fully invest himself in the relationship, largely for fear of things going wrong again.

The film was shot on low quality video, and looks very rough, but there are times when that adds to the intimate 'reality' feel. At other times it just looks a little cheap. There's a surprising amount of humor, and Lucky McKee, who wrote the script as well as playing the lead does a good job a creating a very strange protagonist you still find yourself feeling for. Certainly this has it's fair share of flaws, and moments that don't quite come off, but it has originality and bravery on it's side, and in it's best moments it achieves a sort of David Lynch vibe. For a first feature Angela Bettis acquits herself nicely.

Jeez...apparently, Lucky McKee can do no wrong. Like an album by an indie artist buried under a pile of Top 40 junk, it is often hard to remember that the horror genre DOES have an existence outside of Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, and the "Saw" franchise. But is "Roman" really a horror film? McKee himself has found the tag questionable, as his films are more about relationships than anything else. "Roman," directed by actress Angela Bettis, is a gender reversal on McKee's breakout debut, "May" (in which Bettis starred), but blossoms into yet another singularly unique entity. Roman (McKee, who also scripted) is a remote, shy welder who leads a lonely existence; his daily excitement comes from sitting in front of his apartment window as an anonymous, beautiful girl (Kristen Bell) walks by; when the duo finally hook up, it meets an unexpected end. While McKee's hangdog expression can be overdone at times, he nails the nuances of a tormented, lovelorn guy, which becomes even more complex when Eva (the beautiful Nectar Rose), a foliage-wearing artist, enters his life. The beauty of watching "Roman" unravel is this awareness of relationship mechanics--seldom does character motivation feel contrived, nor does it come off with a sanitized "Hollywood" feel (the use of DV further helps this). As with "May," McKee finds ways to make potential shock-value scenes play with a tenderness (or humor) that is even more effective. And maybe as a titular nod to Polanski, the film bears a similarity to that director's tales of paranoid and/or sexually confused apartment-dwellers trying to sustain a day-to-day existence without (literally) killing someone. "Roman" is a wonderful film, sure to be on my "Best of 2007" list (even though it came out last year).

I watched and watched and kept thinking 'i'll give it ten more minutes'. The film is obviously low budget, (maybe more financial interest may have hurried it along a bit). The lead actor is great, he plays the role great, definitely the type of guy you'd avoid. However,he sits in his apartment, and he sits, and he sits, and he sits, and he goes to work, and then home, and then work and then home....get the point.

There are people out there like that, and the story line is menacing, but for heavens sake... hurry it along a bit. Surely in the pre-release stage, someone must have started fidgeting in the first ten minutes and said to the producer, 'shall we go back and tweak it to make it more interesting?' I can only assume that the response was...'too late the money's ran out' Enough said, go shopping instead!