ifwejustbelieved Review of The Roommate

The Roommate (I) (2011)

they told the wrong story! **CONTAINS A FEW SPOILERS! You've BEEN WARNED**

[2/10 · 5 February 2011]

I realize that today's major cinema generally lacks creativity and innovation and indie is the way to go, but I can't resist a cheap thriller. Once in a great while I will be impressed by a film or at least not be furious I spent ten bucks on it. Unfortunately with "The Roommate" I felt like I'd wasted both my money and my time. The story is unoriginal, but even with recycled plots writers can tell them from new angles. This movie was told from the completely wrong angle. The main character goes to college and basically finds out her roommate is crazy and obsessed with her. The huge mistake? The story should've been about the 'crazy' girl and not about the girl who finds out the 'crazy' girl is obsessed with her etc. I'm frankly also insulted at how they depict mental illness in this movie, putting across the message that if a person has emotional problems/mental issues etc they're obviously dangerous. First of all her problems throughout the movie appear to be pretty severe, so why is she not under regular psychological care? At a visit to the the crazy girl's house, her parents seem almost afraid of her and make a comment about her medication. Various scenes in the girl's hometown make it clear that something serious has happened with this girl in the past. The script wants the viewer to hate this character and find her dangerous and sympathize with the roommate, but I find myself sympathizing with the crazy girl and curious about her backstory and what's really going on with her. The movie fails at getting me to see the girl as the antagonist and root against her, instead I pitied her and was concerned about her. I didn't really care about the main character at all. In short, Hollywood recycles plots all the time, and that's fine but they could at least pick a new angle to tell the story through that would captivate the viewer. The Roommate, is a huge fail and if I were you I'd skip this one in the box office.