The Roommate (2011)

Directed By: Christian E. Christiansen

Starring: Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, Cam Gigandet, Danneel Harris, & Alyson Michalka

MPAA Rating: PG-13

My Rating: 5 / 10

Is The Roommate a remake of Single White Female? For some reason, that question has become perhaps the most discussed thing about this new thriller. My answer to that question: isn't it obvious? If this wasn't meant to be a remake, then someone should file a lawsuit, because The Roommate is so much like Single White Female, it is practically the same film. So many scenes - the cuddly pet doomed from the minute it arrives, the ex-boyfriend tricked into sex, the girl-on-girl slapdown - are eerily similar, despite The Roommate focusing on younger characters and changing the setting (from an upscale New York apartment to a college dorm room). Now, my problem with this is that Single White Female is only a mildly-entertaining fluff piece anyway...so why would anyone choose to copy it? I can only guess it's because Fatal Attraction has already been covered. The good news is that The Roommate follows Single White Female's formula so closely that it actually manages to be as effective as its predecessor. I'm talking total cheesy trash...but in a completely watchable way.

Maybe I'm so forgiving of all The Roommate's flaws because I saw it with my two friends after class, and it proved to be a nice little distraction from the woes of college life. For an hour and a half, we laughed, faux-screamed, and just had fun. And, I imagine, that is exactly what the filmmakers had in mind when they made The Roommate. They aren't aiming for revolutionary cinema and, after a season of Oscar bait, it's kind of nice to watch a movie in theaters that doesn't seem to be gunning for the gold. I know that sounds kind of like a cop-out, but really movies like this are why the slogan "So bad, it's good" was invented. The story goes something like this: Sara (Minky Kelly) is a freshman who immediately befriends her new roommate, Rebecca (Leighton Meester). But, as the semester progresses, Rebecca starts showing some troubling tendencies. She gets mad when Sara comes home late, she acts insanely jealous, and Sara's other friends become frightened by her. As Sara and Rebecca's relationship intensifies, Rebecca spirals out of control, eventually leading to murder.

Much of the reason why The Roommate works is because of Leighton Meester. She certainly deserves better material than this (Collectively, the Gossip Girl cast is proving to have more potential than the usual CW ensemble), but she really excels as the completely psychotic Rebecca. At times, she actually manages to bring out real sympathy from the audience...which, ironically, Jennifer Jason Leigh never did in Single White Female (I hated her from her first appearance). At other times, her blank stare can be very unsettling. I thought she found a nice balance between subtly disturbed and batshit crazy. Minka Kelly doesn't fare quite as well. She's a good actress, but her character is written without much interest or color. Sara is the two-dimensional "good girl" who never does anything wrong and wouldn't know a warning sign if it smacked her square in the face. Not until Rebecca's mother says, "Is she still taking her pills?" does Sara start suspecting something is wrong. Minka Kelly is certainly beautiful and talented, but she needs (and, honestly, deserves) more fully-developed material to work with if she is ever going to have a true cinematic breakout.

So, let's be clear, if you are in the mood for a serious movie or one that will lead you to a really enlightened dinner conversation afterwards, then 127 Hours or Blue Valentine are probably still playing in a theater near you. You should check them out. But, if you're a college student stuck in the mid-February blues (you know, just late enough in the semester to be over the fresh excitement, but not late enough to start looking forward to the end), then The Roommate is right up your alley. It's mindless entertainment that is bound to lead to a good time with friends, away from forever-long classes and copious paper-writing. Will I ever watch it again? Probably not. My friends and I saw it, had a good time, and went home. It isn't particularly memorable, nor is it the kind of movie that I will want to watch over and over again (Honestly, few of these girl-gone-crazy movies are), but it serves its purpose well as a one-time viewing experience. Oh, and about the whole animal cruelty debate that has taken foot on blogs and message boards: I think the scene was unnecessary and more than a little annoying, but it wasn't filmed in a gratuitous way and did actually fit the film's narrative (unlike a similar scene in Single White Female). Should the MPAA include animal cruelty in its rating guidelines? Oh absolutely, but even if they do, I don't think that killing a kitten off-screen should be enough to push a film from a PG-13 to an R.