The Resident

I found this movie on Netflix and saw that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was in it, and that was more than enough of a sales pitch to make me sit down and watch "The Resident".

I have to admit that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was amazing in this movie and he really carried the movie quite nicely. Hillary Swank is certainly not among my most favorite of actresses, and she wasn't outstanding in this movie. Too bad that Christopher Lee wasn't given a bigger role in the movie, because he always brings something unique to the movies he was in.

The Max character was just genuinely disturbed and creepy, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan was really nicely cast for this role.

The storyline in "The Resident" was quite good and captivating, which made for some adequate entertainment.

While "The Resident" is indeed and entertaining movie, then it is hardly the type of movie that has enough contents in its storyline and plot to support more than a single viewing.

I have to admit i wasn't blown away by the film, but saying that it kept my attention from start to end and was watchable. Swank was excellent as the new resident of a seemingly cheap flat. She undoubtedly is a fantastic actress and she truly came alive in this film.

You pretty much know whats going to happen about 30 minutes in, as this kind of voyeuristic thriller has been done on countless occasions. But it bounces along at a rapid pace and without the audience getting bored.

Overall a good 7/10.

In New York, Dr. Juliet Bliss Devereau (Hilary Swank) of the Brooklyn General Hospital has ended her relationship with her boyfriend Jack (Lee Pace) and is seeking an apartment in Brooklyn to live alone. She finds a bargain in an old apartment building owned by the handsome and lonely Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and one night she misinterprets his signals and dates him. However she concludes that it is too soon to have a love affair and she asks Max to leave her apartment. However she does not know that Max is a deranged man obsessed on her and that he spies her from secret openings in her apartment. Further, Max is drugging Juliet every night and sexually abusing of her. Juliet has troubles to wake up in the morning to go to the hospital and decides to install a monitoring system in her apartment. She learns the truth about Max but how to escape from the insane landlord?

"The Resident" is a predictable thriller that the viewer knows exactly what is going to happen in the next scene. I do not understand why an awarded actress like Hilary Swank that was Oscar winner twice in the Best Actress in a Leading Role category could accept to participate in a lame film like "The Resident". My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "A Inquilina" ("The Tennant")

A well acted film that unfortunately offers nothing new once the scene has been set. A third of the way into the film you can pretty much turn off and guess the rest. its a real shame too because there was an element of mystery to begin with which was stripped away far too early leaving only a predictable hour till the finish.

Aside from that the acting is great, the tension is OK, although its not built upon enough, it seemed as if scenes of potentially great tension were cut short just to have action, which, in a horror film, isn't a smart move.

There are a couple of great scenes when the 'horror' came not from the hunter but from the hunted, but overall it never really scares.

The Resident (2011)

** (out of 4)

Really disappointing film from Hammer about an ER doctor (Hilary Swank) who moves into a lavished apartment in Brooklyn and soon discovers that her kind-hearted landlord (Jeffrey Dean MOrgan) is actually obsessed with her. THE RESIDENT has some nice performances, good direction and a few clever moments but in the end it's really a misfire as there's no energy in anything we're seeing and what we are seeing is something that has already been done to death and this film adds nothing new to the mix. What we've basically got here is a "psycho from hell" movie but it never works because there's never any tension going on. The entire film seems to run twice as long as it actually does and I think the main reason for this is that everything we're watching we've seen in much better movies. The only real difference is that the psycho has pretty much build the apartment so that there are many different areas where he can sneak into it or simply spy on his victim. This gives us some pretty silly moments including one where the landlord likes to hide under the bed until the victim falls asleep and then he sucks on her fingers! We also get a scene where he uses her toothbrush. Yeah, that's scary. Both Swank and Morgan do a very good job in their roles and there's no question that they have some nice chemistry during the early portion of the film. It's just the screenplay really gives neither one any place to go and the majority of the time we just see Swank taking her clothes off (including some nude scenes) and Morgan watching her. Christopher Lee has a supporting part here and it was nice to see him. THE RESIDENT has a clever idea here and there but sadly the majority of what we're watching is just downright boring and just leads to one predictable scene after another.