The Roommate

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Movie
German title The Roommate
Original title The Roommate
The Roommate.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2011
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Christian E. Christiansen
script Sonny Mallhi
production Roy Lee
Doug Davison
Irene Yeung
Sonny Mallhi
music John Frizzell
camera Phil Parmet
cut Randy Bricker
occupation

The Roommate (Original title: The Roommate ) is a thriller by the director Christian E. Christiansen , who was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 for his short film Om natten .

action

Sara Matthews is new to college . She finds her room and realizes that her roommate is not there yet. Two girls she's already befriended invite her to a party. During the party that a band is playing at, Sara starts flirting with Stephen, the band's drummer. When Sara sees that her friend Tracy is so drunk that she wants to take off her shirt, she just manages to keep her from further embarrassment. On the way to her room, Sara meets her new roommate, Rebecca Evans. The two slowly become friends, and the next day Sara introduces Rebecca to her other friends. Rebecca doesn't seem to be particularly enthusiastic about Sara's friends, especially Sara's best friend Tracy is a thorn in Rebecca’s side. Sara doesn't seem to notice, and Rebecca is so engaging that Sara is slowly distancing herself from Tracy. The schizophrenic Rebecca wants Sara to herself and intends to get everyone around Saras out of the way.

One day Rebecca is waiting in front of Tracy's door, showing her obsessive side. Tracy tries to warn Sara, but Sara doesn't want to believe her. One day while Tracy is taking a shower, Rebecca is attacked by Rebecca. She rips out her navel piercing and threatens Tracy with death if she tells someone. Tracy moves into another house and from now on avoids Sara.

Sara and Stephen get closer, which makes Rebecca more and more jealous. There are also problems with Sara's ex-boyfriend Jason, who keeps calling her and trying to win her back. When Sara has a date with Stephen, Jason calls Sara's cell phone again, which she left in her room. Rebecca takes the call and pretends to be Sara. After having phone sex with him, she tells him not to call her again.

One day, Sara's professor from her design class wants to talk to her after class and then tries to kiss her. Sara told Rebecca very indignantly about his attempt and Rebecca takes revenge on him by pretending to seduce him. When he gets on it, she pretends to do something to her, makes a sound recording of it with her cell phone and uses it to blackmail him.

Rebecca invites Sara to dinner at her parents' house on Thanksgiving, which Sara refuses because she associates Thanksgiving with the death of her big sister. The jealous Rebecca inflicts wounds on herself and then stabs herself in the stomach with a box knife. She lies to Sara and says that she was attacked by a man on the street while looking for her cat that Sara secretly smuggled into the dormitory. On the evening of Thanksgiving , Sara goes to her parents' home with Rebecca. Sara discovers a large painting by Rebecca that shows a girl. Rebecca says it's just high school work that she hasn't given up yet. When Sara and Rebecca go out to eat the next day, they meet the girl who Sara identifies as the girl in the picture. The girl doesn't want to go into the shop because of Rebecca and sits down outside while her friends order something inside. Rebecca wants to go straight to Sara, outside the girl says to Rebecca: "We were never friends."

Sara becomes skeptical, starts to rummage through Rebecca's belongings and finds pills in one of her drawers. She finds out that it is psychiatric drugs and decides to move in with Irene, who made her this offer some time ago. When she doesn't reach Irene, she goes back to her room and meets Rebecca, who tells her that she wants a tattoo and that she doesn't dare to get it without Sara. To Sara's horror, she does the same tattoo that Sara has, the name of Sara's deceased sister. She tells Sara that she can just call her Emily and Sara runs away in shock. Sara moves in with Stephen. When moving, she accidentally takes Rebecca's portfolio with her, which only contains drawings by Sara. Stephen wants to bring the folder back and asks Sara to do something, but she is scared. She throws the folder into her mailbox the next day.

Jason calls Sara again and knocks on her old room door, behind which only Rebecca lives. He leaves a letter with an address that Rebecca goes to, who again pretends to be Sara. In the dark he doesn't realize that it's not Sara and Rebecca stabs him with a knife. Shortly thereafter, Sara receives a text message from Irene asking for help. Sara goes there immediately and finds Irene tied to her bed, Rebecca sits next to her with a revolver in her hand and makes it clear that she wants Sara to herself. She threatens to kill Irene. A fight ensues between Sara and Rebecca, in which Rebecca is disarmed and Sara manages to lock Rebecca out. In the next room she goes crazy and finds the gun again, shoots the door to Irene and is overwhelmed by Stephen, but pulls herself up again. The fight starts again and Rebecca tries to strangle Sara. Sara manages to stab Rebecca in the back with a knife. Meanwhile she says to Rebecca: "You have never been my girlfriend."

Reviews

The reviews of The Roommate were mostly negative.

  • Kino.de wrote: Psychological thriller filled with attractive, aspiring talents according to a tried and tested scheme.
  • On the Rotten Tomatoes page , only 4% of 82 reviews were considered positive.
  • Critic.de wrote: Christiansen sells two shower scenes to presumptuous psychological quotes and paradoxically tries to keep the subject of sex out of a film that portrays homosexuality as a threat.
  • Critics accused the film of being a "cheap copy of female, single, young seeks ... ".

publication

The film opened in US cinemas on February 4, 2011 and in German cinemas on March 31, 2011. With a production budget of around 16 million US dollars, the film grossed around 40 million US dollars worldwide, with the largest part of that 37 million US dollars in the USA.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate of the FSK (PDF), accessed on June 13, 2014
  2. ^ Kino.de film review of The Roommate
  3. ↑ The Roommate on rottentomatoes.com
  4. ↑ Film review on Critic.de
  5. ^ Travers Peter: The Roommate . In: Rolling Stone . February 4, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  6. ↑ Franich, Darren., Staskiewicz, Keith: 'Single White Female': The 'Roommate' inspiration signs a lease with PopWatch Rewind . In: Entertainment Weekly . February 4, 2011. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
  7. ↑ grossing of The Roommate from Box Office Mojo