The Landlady

In this depressing slasher movie `from the producer of WISHMASTER and THE DENTIST' (how could that ad copy fail to bring in viewers?) , two-time Academy Award ® nominee Talia Shire plays Melanie Leroy, a bitter, unlikable harridan who sniffs other people's laundry and decides to go on a half-ass killing spree after inheriting her dead Aunt's apartment building. Shire spends the whole movie ranting to her dead husband's ashes and obsessing over her nice-enough social worker tenant (Jack Coleman from the NIGHTMARE CAFÉ T.V. show), spying on him with 2 way mirrors and video cameras, and eventually tying him to the bed in scenes that are like a fourth grade class production of MISERY. While this unbearable flick rolls on Melanie offs people with a refrigerator door, an enormous candle stick, a butcher knife, a steamer trunk, a gun, sleeping pills, a dry cleaning bag, and, scariest of all, shellfish. Yes, apparently feeding someone shellfish when they're allergic is sca-a-ary! Move over, Jason Vorhees!

Where was I? This movie. I tried to think of some ways to make it better, but all I came up with was to give two-time Academy Award ® nominee Talia Shire a Muppet © sidekick that only she can see and who can grant wishes. Sorry.

In Sunshine, Nevada, the middle-aged housewife Melanie Leroy (Talia Shire) sees her husband Ralston Leroy (Nathan Le Grand) shagging her neighbor and she freaks out. Then she poisons Ralston, who is allergic to seafood, in the dinner.

Melanie travels to the California to the apartment building that she has inherited from her aunt and when she meets her tenant Patrick Forman (Jack Coleman), she believes that he would be a perfect husband for her. She uses her maiden name, Melanie Leroy, and becomes obsessed for him, killing anyone that might interpose between Patrick and her.

"The Landlady" is a lame low-budget thriller, with a plot with many holes and an awful lead actress. The story is a dreadful rip-off of "Fatal Attraction" and "Misery" with a predictable conclusion. I bought this DVD some years ago and today I unfortunately decided to see it. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

After killing her cheating husband, Melanie (Talia Shire) moves into an apartment building she inherited from her aunt. There she meets one of the tenants (Jack Coleman) and decides he's the perfect man to become her new husband. When anyone gets in the way of Melanie and her obsession, they find themselves in for a world of hurt.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Don't let the low IMDb score fool you, folks. This is an entertaining tongue-in-cheek thriller with a wonderfully campy performance from Talia Shire. This is the only time I've ever seen her in a lead role, let alone a comedic one. She makes this whole thing work. The thriller aspects are all predictable, which accounts for the low score I believe. At the risk of insulting the reviewers who didn't like this, I have to wonder how they didn't notice how the movie doesn't expect you to take it seriously. If you think the people behind this thought they were making Fatal Attraction or something, then I have to question how much of the movie you paid attention to. For those who haven't seen it yet, give it a shot and I think you'll find it's more fun than the low score and negative reviews would lead you to believe.

Talia Shire whines her way through this extremely routine psycho-thriller, playing the role of Melanie Leroy. Melanie is a mousy middle-aged woman who catches her husband in the act of cheating on her. Later, she successfully poisons him and then goes about trying to live a new life. She decides to take on the job of managing an apartment building that she inherited. One of the tenants she meets is Patrick Forman (Jack Coleman), a hunky nice guy social services worker. She fixates on him, convinced that it's their destiny to be together, and methodically eliminates everybody who stands in the way of her happiness.

We've all seen countless movies like this one, and "The Landlady" brings absolutely nothing new to a tired stalker-melodrama plot. It's not badly made or anything, it's just painfully predictable from beginning to end, showing not the slightest hint of imagination. The main reason it might make anybody curious is to see Shire in a leading, antagonistic role. She never has been a great actress, but at least it looks like she is relishing this moment in the spotlight.

The rest of the actors & actresses are basically adequate, no more and no less. Coleman is a decent enough object of affection, and does take off his top for those who are interested. At least TV veteran Bruce Weitz ('Hill Street Blues') offers a fair amount of amusement as an amiable handyman who occasionally talks to himself, but who is also no dummy, and ultimately smells a rat. Courtney Gains of "Children of the Corn" is barely in the picture as another of the tenants.

Very mild gore and very mild profanity (there are a couple of F bombs near the end) make this barely passable as the kind of thing you'd usually see on cable television.

Supposedly based on a Roald Dahl story.

Five out of 10.

After catching her loathesome husband in bed with another woman, Melanie Leroy (Talia Shire) makes sure he meets with a tragic "accident". Melanie then sets out to find her true Prince Charming. Luckily for her, an Aunt has left her an entire apartment building in sunny Los Angeles.

Upon her arrival, Melanie realizes that some rather unsavory people live there, including the Super, named Pepper (Bruce Weitz). However, it's not long -about ten seconds in fact- before Melanie happens upon the man of her dreams (Patrick Forman). Alas, poor Melanie's psychotic nature soon gets the better of her, causing her tenants to start having their own "accidents".

Obviously, in a movie such as this one, it's all about the title character, and boy, does Ms. Shire deliver! She keeps Melanie's personality on the innocent side, while careening wildly between being a soft-spoken mouse and a murdering maniac. As the bodies pile up, we only hope that Melanie's "true love" will be the one that got away.

Absolutely ludicrous in every way, THE LANDLADY is a genuine rib tickler from start to finish...