Review of film: "THE ROOMMATE"

2011, 02-25:

Review of film:  “THE ROOMMATE”      

    

            Be CAREFUL who you allow to enter your Life!…  

  Going off to college can be a “traumatic” time…  But, hopefully, it’s not always THIS distressing…

…    Sara Matthews (MINKA KELLY) has gone to college in the Los Angeles area, to study clothes designing.  Supposedly, she’s a “naïve” middle-class girl from Des Moines, Iowa--  yet she brings with a bunch of “designer” type clothes she wears, & appears & acts far more “sophisticated” than “inexperienced” in the Big Avocado…

…  Soon, Minka “bats her eyes” at lustful Professor  Roberts (BILLY DANE), & seductively gets him to immediately “open-up” his Designing class to her attendance…

…  In her dorm, she quickly makes friends with”wild child” Tracy Morgan (ALYSON MICHALKA), & after first weakly “declining”, she soon eagerly accepts to go off with her to a FRAT “kegger” party...

...  There, she meets enticing frat guy Stephen (CAM GIGANDET) who plays drums in the House band & promptly “hits” on her (which she’s very “open” to)…

…  After she gets back to her own dorm room, she soon meets her new roommate Rebecca (LEIGHTON MEESTER), who comes across as “mousy” & purportedly from a “poorer” background since she’s stunned by Minka’s “designer” duds & all.  Leighton immediately seems fairly “SHY” --  or is that “strange”?! --  in the “secretive” & reticent ways she tends to act…

…  But quickly --  “TOO” quickly! --  Leighton “latches on” to Alyson & wants to always know where she is & what she’s “DOING” in her life…  She starts wearing items that belong to Minka (including her dead sister Emily’s necklace) , works to take PHOTOS of the two of them together, etc…

…  Minka keeps getting unwanted calls from her ex-boyfriend Jason (MATT LANTER)-- & Leighton furtively “inserts” herself into that relationship (surreptitiously pretending to be Minka)…

…  Leighton also dislikes that Minka has an old friend named Irene (DANNEEL HARRIS) who’s already a “big-shot” in the world of designing.  As time goes on, Leighton acts very “STRANGELY” towards Danneel--  just as she has to OTHER people Minka knows (such as Alyson, Cam, Billy, & others)…

…  Minka never seems to fully “catch-on” to how people she knows are “CREEPED-OUT” by Leighton & her increasingly weird actions… 

…  Even when supposedly “poor” Leighton turns out to have an extremely expensive car & takes her to visit her RICH parents (who are “solicitous” of her), Minka is “OBLIVIOUS” to it all, & unaware of how Leighton is clearly OBSESSED with her…  (The old “stupid-pills” plotting excuse I’ve spoken of before)…

...  Will Leighton continue her threatening actions towards people Minka knows?...  Will Minka ever “WAKE-UP” to the fact that  Leighton is “not quite RIGHT”, & will it be in “time” to avert onrushing problems that have arisen?...

…  In case you couldn’t tell, this is a “HORROR” movie--  although not quite a “slasher” flick” in that violent actions are usually  “indicated” but not directly SHOWN (which is a “plus” in my book)…  Most of the actors do a decent, believable job in their roles (especially Leighton & Cam who’s appropriately “charming” but decent)…

…  To me, the big exception in that is MINKA.  I don’t know if it’s her acting or how her role is “written” (or a combination of the two)--  but I’m sorry to say I found her HARD to believe:  she comes across (perhaps because she’s almost “overly” pretty?) as very “SUPERFICIAL”, doesn’t seem at all “naïve” (& thus somewhat PHONY in how she comes “across”), & just plain “H-M-D” --  Horror Movie DUMB…

…  So, because of the genre & how it’s “presented” (with a hard-to-believe main character), I’m only rating this film as 6 out of 10 stars…  (I think “word-of-mouth” had gotten OUT about the film, because my friend & I were the only 2 people in the whole theater watching it in the middle afternoon on a weekday)…

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