Swift shot: Lifetime TV has more tension. If you haven’t seen “Single White Female” maybe you will find this worthy of your time and money. This is essentially the teen version, which is what I was expecting, but it had no real edge worthy of mentioning.
Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights) and Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl) star in this less than thrilling “thriller” set on the ‘ULA’ campus in Los Angeles. Sarah Matthews (Kelly) is an aspiring fashion designer from Des Moines who draws the shortest straw by getting Rebecca (Meester) as her freshman roommate.
At first, things are more or less normal, Rebecca (not Beck, or Becca, or Becky) is a little over-protective of Sarah and doesn’t approve of her hanging around with another girl from the dorm, Tracy (Alyson “Hellcats” Michalka) who plays the campus party girl. Rebecca has a little shared shower chat with Tracy and explains it might be best if she steer clear of Sarah. That scene was supposed to be tense, and if I was a 13 year old girl, maybe I would have been terrified . . . but I am not, and I was not.
Every damsel in distress needs a Prince Charming, enter Stephen (Cam Gigandet) who plays drums in a, self-described, sucky coffee house band. He also raises the ire of Rebecca who doesn’t want to share Sarah with anyone and manipulates several ancilliary characters to keep them away from Sarah. No self-respecting psycho stalker thriller would be worth its salt if it didn’t have some poor little four-legged creature tortured or killed – “The Roommate” is no exception.
No spoiler here, we eventually find out that Rebecca isn’t taking her meds, and she is actually a diagnosed bipolar disorder patient who has issues making friends and playing well with others. But, Rebecca is capable enough to seduce the sultry, lesbian mynx, Irene (Danneel “One Tree Hill” Harris) who finds herself in a rather compromising position and may well serve as a reminder to use more discretion in choosing your bedroom playmates.
When everything cranks up and Sarah is confronted with just how insane Rebecca (not Beck, or Becca, or Becky) truly is, the thrill payoff is decent, but again, only if you are a 13 year old girl – which, as I stated earlier, I am not. Want to see something worthy of the title “thriller”? Go ahead and rent “Single White Female”, starring the incredibly creepy Jennifer Jason Leigh and the superbly fragile Bridget Fonda. You can wait until “The Roommate” comes out on Lifetime in a few months; I don’t imagine much will be cut out by Standards and Practices.
