The Roommate is merely shelf filler made only to appease the tween crowd with a young cast and a very basic plot which has been done before. I didn’t feel it was a terrible film but still it’s not very good and could only recommend only as a rental and even then I would wait until it was cheaper.
The Roommate (2011)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Screen Gems | PG13 – 91 min. – $34.95 | May 17, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Christian E. Christiansen
Writer(s): Sonny Mallhi (written by)
Cast: Leighton Meester, Minka Kelly, Cam Gigandet, Aly Michalka, Billy Zane
Theatrical Release Date: February 4, 2011
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentary, 3 Featurettes, Deleted/Alternate Scenes, movieIQ, BD-Live
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (DTS-HD MA 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.40
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Portuguese, Spanish
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Disc Size: 29.1 GB
Region(s): A, B, C
THE MOVIE – 2.0/5
Plot synopsis: She’s cute. She’s loyal. She’s psychotic. And, unfortunately for college freshman Sara (MINKA KELLY), she’s the roommate. When Sara arrives at school, she finds new romance with Stephen (CAM GIGNDET) and forms a fast friendship with her roommate Rebecca (LEIGHTON MEESTER). When begins as a camaraderie soon turns creepy, and Sara comes face to face with the terrifying realization that her new best friend is obsessive, unbalanced… and maybe a killer!
There are a number of things I detest about Hollywood and The Roommate covers a few of them. The first is a PG-13 rated thriller targeting the ‘tween demographic and thus those films tend to be, at the very least, safe, predictable and void of any suspense. What we get instead are a bunch of good looking men and women in their early to mid 20s who only have mild acting talents and little to no chemistry, be it between the two love interests haphazardly thrown together or utter suspense between the female lead and her obsessed roommate.
Now, I don’t take issue with studios targeting a certain age group but they can release smartly written, well-made films to not only that demo but to others as well (not unlike how Pixar is able to reach kids and their parents). But it’s all about the quick dollar and when a film like The Roommate only costs $16 million then it’s a no brainer to put something like this – and others – through the system for an easy haul (this one made $37.3 million domestically). Of course, this isn’t my first foray into the tween-centric having watched the atrocious When a Stranger Calls remake. Thankfully The Roommate isn’t nearly as bad since there was a scene or two that weren’t bad, though the rest of it I found meandering.
If I had to point out what was good about The Roommate would be with the star, Minka Kelly. She has the charisma to carry the film and is fairly consistent with her acting. No, it’s not a memorable performance but what she did with a poorly written script – by Sonny Mallhi (debut as a writer, producer of Shutter – speaking of tween flicks – and Possession) – was commendable since her character was hardly well developed outside of a thin attempt bringing in the character’s dead sister.
** Spoiler Warning **
In regards to the other actors, they merely fill their parts, nothing more, nothing less. Leighton Meester is a talented young actress, and the only good thing about Country Strong, but here she plays the typical psycho bitch with subtlety of a derailed freight train to the point that’s unbelievable somebody like Sara would stick around as long as she did (despite Rebecca’s thin deceit). Meanwhile Cam Gigandet (The Unborn, Easy A) fills in the boyfriend role well enough but it’s also unremarkable. There’s not much behind his character whose whole purpose is to be able to swoop in and save the day at the last second.
** End Spoiler Warning **
Directed by Denmark born Christian E. Christiansen, The Roommate is his mainstream debut after helming a few smaller budgeted flicks. While I don’t think he gave us a very suspenseful movie, at least it looked good and had some atmosphere to it.
Overall, The Roommate is just another suspense-thriller made for the tween demo and not concerned with actually presenting anything neither suspenseful nor thrilling. It’s not as bad as I had expected give a fair number of reviews have been in the 0-1 star range but it’s not very good either. I imagine you’ll be able to catch this on TBS or TNT in a couple of years.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.5/5
Commentary – Recorded in his home country of Denmark, director Christian E. Christiansen provides an OK track and fills the time with info on his background, how approached different scenes and the casting of the parts. While it’s a decent track, it would’ve benefited from somebody else in the room.
Deleted & Alternate Scenes (6:09; SD) – Here we get 7 scenes – including an alternate opening – that are alright but obviously were unnecessary and wouldn’t have helped made the film any better.
Obsession: The Making of The Roommate (8:46; HD) is a by-the-numbers featurette where the cast and crew give a rundown of the plot and other aspects intermixed with behind-the-scenes footage and scenes from the film. ** Blu-ray Exclusive **
The Roommate: The Next Generation of Stars (5:27; HD) – This is another basic featurette covering the cast itself and why they were cast. I’m not sure why this wasn’t just rolled into the previous featurette as it’s more of the same. ** Blu-ray Exclusive **
Dressing Dangerously (3:51; HD) covers the costume design for the film. It’s yet another yawn-inducing featurette that could’ve been included in the “Obsession” one. ** Blu-ray Exclusive **
movieIQ is included on this release where, while the film plays, you can get various amount of information from the cast and crew like filmographies and bits of trivia. I don’t like this feature if nothing else because it takes a long time to load and a pain to stop (my player basically locks up). ** Blu-ray Exclusive **
BD-Live – You can check out trailers and other items from Sony Pictures. ** Blu-ray Exclusive **
Previews – Insidious, Just Go With It and Country Strong
VIDEO – 4.5/5
The Roommate is presented in its original 2.40 aspect ratio and in a nice looking 1080p high-definition transfer. The film, even during daylight scenes, is fairly dark and in the night scenes, the black levels look great with no signs of pixilation or other flaws which darker spots tend to show off. The skin tones meanwhile look good as did the colors which didn’t look oversaturated or pumped up; I can imagine this is as close to the theatrical presentation as possible.
AUDIO – 3.5/5
The Blu-ray comes equipped with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and, for the most part, it’s effective enough yet unremarkable. Dialogue levels were clear from beginning to end but the audio effects, like gunfire or general struggling/fighting, were low key. John Frizzell’s score gives the track some depth as it makes use of the other channels but otherwise it’s a OK lossless track.
OVERALL – 2.75/5
Overall, The Roommate is merely shelf filler made only to appease the tween crowd with a young cast and a very basic plot which has been done before. I didn’t feel it was a terrible film but still it’s not very good and could only recommend only as a rental and even then I would wait until it was cheaper.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 07/20/2011
Check out more screen grabs on page 2.