<\/strong><\/p>\n Directed By: Christian E. Christiansen<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Starring: Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester, Cam Gigandet, Alyson Michalka, Danneel Harris, Billy Zane<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n There’s a reason we get a new nonsensical slasher movie every month or two – they’re fun. At this point, it’s no surprise that the industry has dumbed down the subgenre to the point that it fits a specific formula that generally works both in terms of box office numbers and general appeal. It may be a C+ film, but at least it’s fun to watch. All you’ve got to do to get the audience to bypass the illogicalities and technical faults is make an engaging and suspensful film. Clearly Christian E. Christiansen didn\u2019t do his research.<\/p>\n \n Sara (Minka Kelly) arrives on campus for her very first day of her freshman year of college to an empty dorm room. While waiting for her roommate to arrive, she opts to head to a frat party with some new friends. After a rowdy night of drinking, dancing and canoodling with a frat boy drummer, Stephen (Cam Gigandet), she gets home and barely notices the other bed is occupied. But what\u2019s one less night with Rebecca (Leighton Meester) in her life? The moment Sara wakes up the next day, Rebecca is in full BFF mode.<\/p>\n \n Things seem rather normal at first. No, maybe Rebecca doesn’t like to party as much as Sara’s other pal, Tracy (Alyson Michalka), but she’s still eager to just be a good friend. However, as the relationship progresses, Rebecca takes the task of getting on Sara’s good side a bit too far, overstepping her boundaries in just about every area of Sara’s life. You think Rebecca knowingly wearing Sara\u2019s dead sister\u2019s necklace is bad? That\u2019s the least of this nightmare of a roommate\u2019s bizarre behavior.<\/p>\n \n Yes, The Roommate<\/em> is a lot like Single White Female<\/em>, but for anyone who went to college and has gone through the random roommate process, this concept really hits home. Of the thousands of kids first starting college, it\u2019s totally possible that you could get stuck with the wacko of the bunch. Perhaps \u201cwacko\u201d doesn\u2019t necessarily mean killer, but the idea certainly makes you think.<\/p>\n \n Sadly, beyond the initial concept, The Roommate<\/em> doesn\u2019t make you think at all \u2013 unless it\u2019s about how ridiculous this whole damn movie is. The film is asking for it right from the start when it opens with a few sequences packed with painfully clich\u00e9 college behavior. Guess what happens at the frat party? The girls drink \u201cpunch.\u201d And you know what? It\u2019s spiked! And guess what else \u2013 one of the girls flashes a crowd of drooling boys. It\u2019s people like writer Sonny Mallhi that give fraternities and sororities a bad name. Yes, this happen when you drink, but even the wildest moments in actual Greek organizations go down with more tact.<\/p>\n \n The story only gets worse from there. Mallhi may be an experienced executive producer, but when it comes to writing, he\u2019s a novice and it shows. Maybe the guy isn\u2019t 19 or 20, but he had to be at one point. Does he really think college students talk like this? Even worse than the dialogue is the structure of the story. Some horror movies can get away with those all-too-familiar lines, but prevail based on suspense alone. Well, that\u2019s far from the case here simply because Mallhi gives everything away far too soon. There\u2019s such a minimal attempt at making Rebecca even the slightest bit normal that nothing she does comes as a shock. There\u2019s one moment in particular that had a fantastic chance of earning a dark laugh. When Sara introduces Rebecca to some of her other friends, the girls have some fun trying to come up with nicknames \u2013 Becca, Becky \u2013 but they\u2019re stopped dead in their tracks when Rebecca says she likes Rebecca. It could have been a great subtle hint at what\u2019s to come, but we basically knew it was coming the moment the conversation started.<\/p>\n \n This issue drowns the entire movie. Rather than freaking you out, seeing Rebecca lurking around a corner is just laughable. There\u2019s really no tension at all. The only scares The Roommate <\/em>delivers are through cheap shots like showing a bellybutton ring being ripped out or a knife piercing someone\u2019s skin; they\u2019re never earned.<\/p>\n \n Latching onto the characters to get you through this one isn\u2019t an option either because they\u2019re all as weak as they come. First off, Stephen is your stereotypical beautiful boyfriend, so he could have been played by any good-looking actor who can wear a pretty smirk for 93 minutes. As for Rebecca, that character is just ruined by ill-timed reveals. Rather than exposing her layers piece-by-piece, we\u2019re tossed chunks of information at a time. Meester doesn\u2019t do a half bad job at playing the deranged villain, but there\u2019s really nothing she could do with such a poorly written role.<\/p>\n \n Lastly, Kelly is just plain old blah. Yes, she\u2019s pretty, but there\u2019s really nothing else to her and there\u2019s something about her look that isn\u2019t even very camera-friendly. But perhaps that could be due to a weak performance all-around. Kelly makes Sara a terrible one-note character throughout the film. If Sara\u2019s terrified by this situation, she certainly isn\u2019t showing it. On top of that, Sara is just dumb. As obvious as her weirdo roommate\u2019s strange behavior is to the audience, is as obvious as it should be to her and the fact that she walks around for the majority of the movie ignoring it makes her come across as completely ignorant.<\/p>\n \n
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