The Roommate - Il terrore ti dorme accanto

'THE ROOMMATE': Two Stars (Out of Five)

New variation on 'SINGLE WHITE FEMALE', this one revolving around two college freshmen living on campus together at ULA. It stars 'GOSSIP GIRL's Leighton Meester as the psycho student and Minka Kelly as the good girl. The film is directed by Christian E. Christiansen and written by first time writer Sonny Mallhi. It's mildly amusing at times but for the most part it's routine and devoid of thrills or any real action.

Kelly plays Sara Matthews and Meester plays Rebecca Evans. When the two first meet in the dorm room they've both been given they immediately hit it off. What Sara doesn't realize is that she's made too much of an impression on Rebecca and she quickly becomes obsessed with her. Sara is also troubled by an ex-boyfriend (Matt Lanter) who keeps calling but has met a new love interest in drummer Stephen Morterelli (Cam Gigandet). This doesn't sit well with Rebecca who wants Sara all to herself. Her obsession turns to creepy and dangerous really fast.

The film is very light on thrills and violence (for a thriller). The first two thirds of the film actually play out more like a depressing character study drama leaving the viewer feeling more sorry for Rebecca than afraid of her but then of course the end turns to routine third act 'B' movie trash and we finally get some action. Meester is somewhat good as the troubled student and Kelly looks beautiful but for the most part the movie has no real acting to speak of. The dialogue is weak and scares and thrills, like I said, are nearly nonexistent. The movie fails on almost every count but it's still mildly amusing. I give it some credit for not putting me to sleep but it's mostly a waste.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0S1srQ9T8

Movies like this get a bad rap because you know exactly whats going to happen.

But this was shot in a film-noir style and didn't resort to being a slasher-esque movie, unknown foreign director christensen builds the suspense up well, there's nothing long winded here and the 90 minute running time is perfectly paced.

No harm that all the characters are easy on the eye, and while no-one stood out, there wasn't any cringeworthy or cheesy performances.

Its unfair to compare this to other "obsession" movies, I feel this film stands out on its own and is a solid thriler much better than the 4.5 rating on here

It's nice when you're presented with a thriller that the majority of people can relate to. Moving off to college, nervous with jitters, and not knowing who your first college roommate might be. You ask yourself questions like, "Will my roommate be clean and neat? Will we get along? Will they respect my property? " It's a role of the dice that doesn't seem too disappointing for most. What most can't relate to is the question "Is my new roommate a demented psychopath who wants to steal my identity?" Then finding out it's true. That is the case in this rainbow version of the 1992 classic film 'Single White Female.' The film starts with our main character Sarah Matthews (Minka Kelly) moving into her dorm. Sarah is starting to build relationships with other housemates, but they seem paper-thin. Still in the opening credits the acting starts becoming awkward from introductions that are in no way realistic. If you're shopping at Wal-Mart and someone drives they're shopping cart into yours, I don't think everyone will smile then introduce him or herself happily.

After a while we learn Sarah is a design major. Unlike her other classmates she has style something that all the money in the world can't buy according to her Design 101 instructor. Moving along, Sarah goes to a frat party with some of her new friends to get a feel of life away from home without a curfew. She meets a guy whose pick up lines in the real world would come off as lame and stalker like, but for some reason it's acceptable here. After the party, some of the guests are too intoxicated to make it home alone, so they're escorted back to their dorms. This is where we meet the ROOMMATE Rebecca (Leighton Meester.) Rebecca comes across innocent at first with no real reason for you to think otherwise. While the plot centers on Rebecca being obsessed with Sarah wanting to steal her identity, art is one thing they genuinely have in common. So Rebecca can draw art very well and that's all we get to know about her character other than she lives 20 minutes away and her parents are filthy rich and they don't get along. While Sarah and Rebecca are getting acquainted as roommates, Sarah begins to display her particular taste in life and Rebecca is taking mental notes. It feels like a friendship is starting to build until little by little Rebecca starts to mimic Sarah's behavior from illustrations of Sarah's favorite movie to copying her hair color. After a while, like any normal person, Sarah rations her time away with other friends from the college. This is where the s*^# starts to hit the fan. Rebecca of course doesn't like this and starts to become envious of everyone that is taking the time of her so called BFF. Like I said the psychotic behavior is starting to erupt but this is also the main problem of the film.

Rebecca is becoming jealous so she starts doing every SHE can think of to gain Sarah's attention again for her own psychotic gain. They range from body mutilation, harassing Rebecca's friends, and harming animals in a way that can't be imagined. I can only count a number of incidents towards Rebecca's insanity and in doing so her actions are left unresolved. There's really no aftermath to any of her behavior except one occasion where she manipulates Sarah's design instructor, but that was completely justified. It does take away from the point of the film. I wanted to be thrilled and turn in my seat, but I hardly moved. So much was left unanswered regarding Rebecca's behavior and back-story that instead of being scary the film turned into a comedy. When individuals lash out it's more entertaining to know where they came from and what exactly sent them over the edge. Jason was drowning while campers had sex, Freddy was burned alive for being a pedophile, and "The Count of Monte Cristo" was imprisoned for 13 years for crimes he did not commit. Those were justified. Why is Rebecca so crazy? It's not because her parents didn't love her. We're just told she's bipolar and takes medication. That by the way was brought up so remedial as if it was just saying, "make sure you guys buckle up, don't want a ticket." Scene by scene there are attempts to make Rebecca seem more sinister. Instead, I'm screaming, "GIVE ME MORE!" and that request is clearly ignored.

The climax came out of nowhere and it's build up jumped around like a king on a checkered board. Even so, the acting and reactions of someone trying to harm another person flew out of the window making me rationally clock out of the film. The roommate is barely entertaining and may make you say, "WOW" once or twice. The whole time I couldn't think of anything more than, "If this or this happened, it would've been much more entertaining." It's something that we have all seen before but a blessing none of us have to go through. There's a bad taste left in my mouth knowing how entertaining this film could have been if it didn't have the tight collar of a PG-13 rating. Not at all a must see in the least bit. There are plenty of films that surpassed this one in a foot race of the same genre leaving this one in last place. With all that being said, IT'S STILL JUST MY OPINION!!! 5/10 - Brandon Keith Avery

Wow this movie is bad. The writing is terrible and the acting is not much better than terrible. If you took any kid in school sat them down and told them to write a scary horror movie that is set on a university/college campus this is pretty much what they would come up with exactly. It is very predictable and you can see the attacks coming a mile away. Basically without ruining any of it I can say this is a girl who is obviously stuck with a roommate in college who she does not know but the chick turns out to be completely insane and tries to take over and keeps attacking and scaring her to death, almost literally to death. The movie is so stupid you will laugh at different places but it is not meant to be at all funny so this is just a terrible movie.

How bad was your college roommate? After Sara (Kelly) meets her new college roommate Rebecca (Meester) she thinks she has found a new friend. When Sara starts to do things without Rebecca strange things begin to happen. Let me first start by saying that this is not a bad movie, but it is definitely geared toward a specific age group, and it's not mine. For the 19-20 year olds this will be very creepy. For the older crowd this is a definite remake of "Single White Female", but in my opinion not as good. For those who have not seen that movie this will be very creepy. For those that have seen that movie you will notice the very similar scenes and ideas. Again this is actually not a bad movie, but if I was 10 years younger and a girl this would really scare me. If you are older like me and want to be creeped out by a movie like this one, I'd stick with the original "Single White Female". I will say the Leighton Meester, in a departure from her usual roles, did a really great job of playing a creepy stalker. I just could not really get in to this movie. I give it a B-.

Would I watch again? - I don't think I would, but it made me want to watch "Single White Female" again.

*Also Try - Kalamity & Single White Female