CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

Single White Female

Director

Barbet Schroeder

Year

1992

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Don’t know why, but I’ve always liked this movie. It ain’t that good really, so I guess you can call it a guilty pleasure.

Allie (Bridget Fonda) is looking for a new roommate, but everyone seems weird. Then comes Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who seems perfectly fit. Little did Allie suspect that Hedy was a psychopath obsessed with her and her life.

Barbet Schroeder is a good director. He certainly knows how to build suspense and give his characters room to breath. Those are the saving graces of a movie that is not that believable in the first place, but that gets under your skin just as Hedy starts to show more signs of how crazy she really is.

After all is said and done, Single White Female is a psychological thriller that works, although it doesn’t reinvent the genre nor does it aspire to. We feel scared and haunted, and that’s all that matters. As the movie reaches its end it becomes even more thrilling, something that means the movie is actually doing something to us.

Bridget Fonda can be a very good actress when she wants to and here she delivers a good performance. Then again, she’s upstaged by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is creepy and fantastic in a role that required a lot from her.

“I know, I was YOU!”

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