The Lodger - Il pensionante

Tense film about murders with thrills, chills , suspense and an amazing final . This intriguing and exciting story is based on a successful novel and it deal with a serial killer in L . A . executing his crimes like Jack the Ripper . An enigmatic lodger ( Simon Baker ) living in a Guesthouse whose owners are a grumpy security guard ( Donald Logue ) and his wife ( Hope Davis ), booth of them involved an uneasy relationship . Meanwhile two detectives are investigating a series of grisly neighborhood murders , a veteran Detective ( Alfred Molina ) and a rookie (Shane West).

This is a thrilling story about astonishing murders in West Hollywood whose elusive killer is imitating to Jack the Ripper , it has two converging plot lines with various suspects and red herrings . Story's core is interesting and script is dense with information and drama . Good performance by Hope Davis as the psychologically unstable landlady . Excellent Alfred Molina as troubled Inspector engaged in a cat-and-mouse game and fine Simon Baker as suspect lodger who may or may not be guilty of a series of gruesome killings. The picture is packed with an adequate musical score by John Frizzel and colorful cinematography by David Armstrong . The motion picture is professionally directed by David Ondaatje .

The Jack the Ripper character has been adapted on several occasions for cinema from the silent as ¨Pandora's box (1929) ¨ , multiple versions of ¨Lulu ¨ a prostitute killed by Jack , ¨ From hell (2001) ¨ played by Ian Holm and for TV in which appears as character in numerous series as ¨Jack the Ripper (1988)¨ played by Ray McNally and recently in ¨Sanctuary ¨ played by Christopher Heyerdahl .

Jack the Ripper continues yielding many remakes and related fictional movies like this, are countless until now and growing, The Lodger is based on the book of Marie Belloc Lowndes who wrote it in 1913 exposing an alleged theory that a London's landlady had rent a room to heinous serial killer, who already had took to the large screen by the master Hitchcock in 1927 as silent movie, upon this premise the director David Ondaatje built up an intricate and so complex screenplay to translate to Los Angeles's district nowadays the newest Jack the Ripper, stuffed of sterling actors as the British Alfred Molina, the pretty Hope Davis, the veteran Philip Baker Hall, the newbie Shane West and the Australian Simon Baker as the Lodger, it's a thriller movie, just displaying the misdeeds in succinct way, few drops of blood are shown implicitly, the modus operandi also follows the steps in chronological order of British Slasher at small district West Hollywood whereby has a sameness of the Whitechapel Londoner, starting with Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) and his drunkard odd husband Bunting (Donal Logue), due they have financial problems she rents an outside room to the smooth outsider Malcolm (Simon Baker) who require strict privacy, meantime appears many butchered corpses of prostitutes on the district, the Inspector Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina) in charge of the inquiry who had in the past a resembling case, meanwhile Ellen has been involved sexually with the young Lodger, his bad temper husband also has a suspicious behavior as well, then the smart director puts several potential suspects including the weird Inspector Chandler Manning, who are in trouble with his wife on collapse breakdown at hospital in recovery, calls attention of his newcomer partner Street Wilkenson (Shane West), scored by a splendorous opera music the movie flows easy, by the way utterly underrated !!

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First watch: 2021 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25

Serial killers will always be popular because there is a human fascination with the lurid, the sexual and the violent. They epitomize fear, and when making a movie about a copycat serial killer, who better to imitate than the most notorious serial killer of all time, Jack the Ripper? "The Lodger" represents the fourth version of the book by Marie Belloc Lowndes, including one directed by Alfred Hitchcock himself. Although it's nowhere near as good as anything the Master of Suspense put out, it is nonetheless an engaging and twisty mystery.

There are two stories that are at the center of the film, and as the story goes on, they become entwined. First is the story of two detectives, Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina) and Street Wilkensen (Shane West) who are on the trail of a killer who is imitating Jack the Ripper in West Hollwood. Second is the story of a landlady, Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) who is curious about her new tenant, the attractive but aloof Malcolm (Simon Baker). There are a few subplots thrown in for good measure, but really, these are the only ones that matter.

Actually, that's the film's biggest problem. Writer/director David Ondaatje pads the film out, particularly in the first hour. While this helps camouflage the story's red herrings, the subject matter he includes is rather dull. The soundtrack is also uneven. For the most part, it's a solid and effective homage to the creepy music that one always finds in these sorts of movies. However, there are times when it doesn't work, and instead becomes, of all things, melodramatic! The acting is good all around, though. The cast is predominantly made up of character actors on the edge of stardom. Alfred Molina has worked his way up the ladder for the past 25 years, and is just now earning the top-billing he so justly deserves. Manning is a hard boiled detective with a temper. Molina is no Sam Spade, but I'm glad that the producers took a chance on casting an unusual choice, because Molina is always interesting. His co-star, Shane West, tries to shed his bad-boy image, and while no standout, he's not bad. Indie film favorite Hope Davis is also making headway into mainstream fare, and she's terrific as the mousy Ellen. This was clearly a chance for Simon Baker to cash in on his popularity from his show, "The Mentalist." I haven't seen that, but he caught my attention in the underrated "The Affair of the Necklace." Baker is excellent as the seductive lodger; we can see his soft-spoken charm, but there is always an aura of danger around him, and we can never fully trust him. Also on hand are the always reliable Philip Baker Hall, Rebecca Pigeon (aka Mrs. David Mamet) and Donal Logue (who, like West, is an ER alum). Hall and Pigeon are solid, if underused, but Logue is flat as Ellen's jerk husband.

The film is always interesting to look at. Most noirs of this ilk used black and white film to their advantage, but this is 2009, and the film has to make money (which is surprising coming from an indie film). However, Ondaatje uses the color to his advantage. The noir feeling is still there, but it has an interesting feeling of warmth. And I loved how he and his cinematographer David A. Armstrong filmed the rain; it's just like the golden oldies.

It may not be Hitchcock, but this mystery is still pretty good. We don't know the true identity of the killer until the end, and while there are two main suspects, we also know that we can't rule anyone else out either, which makes things more interesting. And for a movie with no CGI, it's always interesting to look at. And watch.

The Lodger (2009)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Yet another remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 film but this one is set in current day Los Angeles where a maniac is killing hookers. While a detective (Alfred Molina) tries to solve the case, an unhappily married woman (Hope Davis) rents her guest house to a mysterious writer (Simon Baker). One could argue that we really didn't need yet another version of this story but I think they did enough interesting things here to make this version worth watching. I think it falls well short of the 1927 and 1944 versions but I did like a few of the changes they did here. Setting the story in current times allows the filmmakers to use stuff like DNA and other scientific things to try to solve the cases. It also helps that the filmmakers are able to use the Jack the Ripper sideline as someone trying to copy his murders. I will say that the final ten minutes of the movie are without question the best thing in the film because it offers up a couple very nice twists that actually work. I'm certainly not going to give them away but I enjoyed them very much. The performances are also another major plus as Molina is excellent as the detective obsessed with solving the case. Shane West is good as his partner and Philip Baker Hall is also strong as the police chief. Rachel Leigh Cook plays the detective's daughter in a small role. Both Davis and Baker are also good in their portion of the story. I think some of the attempted style is a bit overdone and especially the scenes showing the L.A. freeways. I think less would have been a bit more in regards to the style thrown in by the director. Still, fans of the story will probably want to check this one out and while it's not a complete success it's at least good enough to be worth watching.

I will say that The Lodger kept my attention to the very end and that I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. But most of the story line in the middle was your typical old crime mystery.

Simon Baker plays a mysterious and quirky good looking stranger who knocks on Hope Davis's door in answer to an add for a ROOM FOR RENT sign. Of course Hope Davis takes Simon's cash advance of three months rent and accepts the good lucking Simon Baker as her new tenant.

The mutilated murders of streetwalkers start appearing in a similar fashion of the murders that took place seven years earlier. These previous murders were thought to have ended when Detective Chandler Manning played by Alfred Molina arrested the presumed guilty suspect that was put to death seven years earlier. Now the movie viewers realize that Detective Chandler (Alfred Molina) put away the wrong guy for the crimes.

So the viewers have a few suspects to consider who may be committing these recent murders of streetwalkers that appear to be duplicating the documented murders of the notorious Jack the Ripper. I was not impressed with Alfred Molina's performance as the lead detective Chandler Manning. What kept my interest in the film was the interactions between the lonely and disturbed performance of the landlord played by Hope Davis and her new lodger played quite well by Simon Baker.

Of course no suspense film is complete unless the lead detective is suspended from his position in the biggest case in Los Angeles history for his inability to solve the case. Will he be vindicated? Well for me I just did not feel Alfred Molina was convincing enough as the dejected lead detective, whose daughter and wife were also turning their back on their father and husband respectively.

Without spoiling the ending I will say that I found the ending to have a few twists in it that I expected and some twists that I was not expecting. I rated the film a 5 out of 10 because the plot was generally predictable and Alfred Molina's performance as the lead detective a bit disappointing. If not for a strong performance by Hope Davis and Simon Baker the film would have my thumbs down. I give THE LODGER one thumb UP!