Wolff rating: FAIR
Plot summary: Dreary woman gets new dreary roommate and together they have a dreary thriller together.
Biased, pithy comments: Dreary. Did I say dreary? Although the apartment building was pretty nifty, the movie itself was a bit slow. The trailer basically gives away who the bad guy/girl is going to be, so if you have half a clue going in you know what's going to happen, and rather than dreading the horror as it comes, you instead are aching for them to get on with it. I suppose, in 1992, it seemed racy to have faint lesbian overtones in the production, and to have a brief stop by an S and M club, but in these post-``Sex and the City'' days, you have to work harder to shock. Someone once used the phrase ``prostituting the actresses'', and I'm going to have steal that phrase here. Even with some meaty stuff for Leigh to chew on (and Fonda has a bit to masticate), these ladies are hopelessly over-sexualized. Slow, slow, slow, but once it gets to the kaboom it picks up a bit and has some excitement. However, you're best off watching similar thrillers with better pacing, like ``Ransom,'' or, hell, ``Basic Instinct.''
Other Notes: Wow, some serious fawning over this tripe from Ebert and others. This film documents Schroeder's slide into irrelevancy---his next film is the awful ``Kiss of Death.''
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Directed by: Barbet Shroeder