THE ROOMMATE (Christian E. Christiansen). 92 minutes. Opens Friday (February 4). See Listings. Rating: N
The Roommate is like the college-aged younger sibling of Single White Female, ripping off the older thriller with no understanding of what it’s doing.
Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) stars as Sara, a pouty fashionista from Iowa who strides through her chic L.A. campus as if she’s on a runway. She ends up rooming with Gossip Girl Leighton Meester’s Rebecca, a Pasadena sociopath who stares so hard at the people she wants to hurt that her eyes seem to operate in 3-D.
The two soon become BFFs, as roommates do, while the movie turns into a limp low-budget thriller lacking even appropriate lighting, never mind a decent script or acting.
Kelly isn’t given much to do besides look flirtatious and stand out as the prettiest thing in a fictional college full of pretty people. Meester gets to have more fun, but her character’s strained head-tilts and gleaming eyeballs are so overused that they amount to parody. Open the door and there’s Rebecca staring. Turn on the lights and there’s Rebecca staring. Pull a book off the library shelf and there’s Rebecca, between some classical literature, staring.
The Roommate has nothing more to offer than clichéd and ineffective frights. A shower scene’s so dull, most won’t even think of Hitchcock. And a Fatal Attraction moment when a pet ends up in a hot spot is so laughable (and PG-friendly), even PETA won’t take notice.
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