Single White Female is a well made suspense-thriller made so due to some wonderful performances from both Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh who in particular was frightening.
Single White Female
(1992)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Shout Factory | R – 108 min. – $29.99 | November 13, 2018
Date Published: 11/08/2018 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Shout Factory provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3.75/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: Having recently split from fiancé Sam Rawson (STEVEN WEBER), Allison Jones (BRIDGET FONDA) welcomes new roommate Hedra Carlson (JENNIFER JASON LEIGH). The young women quickly form a bond, but as Allison starts to rethink her engagement, Hedra grows jealous and hostile. As Allison learns new details about her roommate’s life, Hedra gets violent in her efforts to get Sam out of the picture. With Hedra turning more menacing by the minute, Allison finally understands what she’s up against.
Review: Single White Female is a movie I’ve heard of but never saw before. Now with it being released to Blu-ray from Shout Factory, now was a good of time as any to see a movie that did to roommates what Jaws did to sharks. It was an effective thriller propelled by two great performances by Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the latter quite creepy. Single White Female doesn’t have the most consistent exhilarating aspects but instead with the Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, the two work so well opposite one another that it covers for any of the films shortcomings, most notably the script and the so-so direction, one wonders what difference it would make with someone like Brian De Palma at the helm.
The film is based on the novel “SWF Seeks Same” and adapted by Don Roos marking his debut and would go on to write Boys on the Side, Diabolique and tear-jerker Marley & Me, and was directed by Barbet Schroeder, who would go on to helm other thrillers like Kiss of Death and Murder by Numbers. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5 |
|
Not a whole lot, but there are new Interviews with Director Barbet Schroeder (27:20), Actors Steven Weber (19:41) and Peter Friedman (7:17), and Screenwriter Don Roos (25:41); a new Audio Commentary with Schroeder, Editor Lee Percy and Associate Producer Susan Hoffman; and last the Theatrical Trailer (2:04). |
VIDEO – 3.75/5 |
| The movie makes its Blu-ray debut from Shout Factory and is shown with a 1080p AVC-encoded and in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio. Given there was no mention on the back cover, or the press release, it’s doubtful this received some sort of restoration process. Even so, the picture does look decent with the sharpness I come to expect from a film of the early-mid 90s (even going back to the 80s) where it’s not terribly sharp and also lacked some of the natural film grain. The video doesn’t exactly look splotchy or anything yet not always the prettiest either. Colors meanwhile are more on the darker side, probably in keeping with the director’s intentions. |
AUDIO – 3.5/5 |
| The disc includes a fine if not adequate DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Dialogue does come through with, for the most part, good clarity though early on I did detect some minor hisses likely more to do with how it was recorded on set but outside of that, it was pretty much absent for the remainder of the movie. There is okay depth especially on display for the finale. |
OVERALL – 3.5/5 |
|
Overall, Single White Female is a well made suspense-thriller made so due to some wonderful performances from both Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh who in particular was frightening. This Blu-ray release has adequate-to-good video and audio transfers and a okay selection of bonus features. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.