RATING: 3.5/5
ALONGSIDE with the ever-popular "from-hell" psychological thriller subgenre that characterizes the early 1990s including PACIFIC HEIGHTS (1990) and THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE (1992), Barbet Schroeder's highly-anticipated follow-up, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, easily sits equally well as among the best of the best.
Bridget Fonda is Alison Jones, a New York-based software designer who has just created a computer software pakcage that will help revolutionize the fashion world and she is about to strike a deal with a potential client, Mitchell Meyerson (Stephen Tobolowsky). She also lives a happy life with her fiance Sam Rawson (Steven Weber). For a while there, everything seems to be right on track, until she discovers Sam is sleeping with his ex-wife. She dumps him and immediately evicted him out of her rented apartment she resided on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Soon she realizes she need to find a roommate in order to hold on to her apartment. After placing an ad and interviews a bunch of unsuitable candidates, she finally settles down a shy-looking Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), in which Alison is positive she's the ideal roommate she's been looking for. It doesn't take long before they become good friends, as Hedra is always on Alison's side to help her getting over her personal crisis. Everything looks fine between the two of them, until Sam appears again to work his way back into Alison's life. Hedra begins to feel very jealous as she witnesses Alison is slowly accepting Sam back, and determines to ruin the moment. As the film progresses, it turns out that Hedra has a murky past with a borderline psychotic behavior.
Despite the familiarity of the "roommate-from-hell" scenario, Don Roos' layered screenplay cleverly exploits the genre conventions with a healthy dose of psychological subtext, particularly for Jennifer Jason Leigh's Hedra character in which she portrays with substantial level of creepiness. The film is especially works above the occasion, largely due to a thought-provoking, two-person character study between Alison and Hedra. Apart from Leigh's credible performance, Bridget Fonda shines equally as the emotionally-conflicted Alison who tries to balance her life between work and personal, only to be constantly threatened by the increasingly odd-behaving Hedra entering in her already-messed up life.
There are doses of Alfred Hitchcock-style of suspenseful moments here, in which director Barbet Schroeder handles them with equal flair. On the plus side, the film is daring enough for a mainstream feature to push the controversial issue of lesbian undertone.
Despite all the good stuff, particularly the terrific first-half, the film grows uneven once the second half takes place with all the typical slasher genre kicks in.
Despite all the good stuff, particularly the terrific first-half, the film grows uneven once the second half takes place with all the typical slasher genre kicks in.
Several flaws aside, SINGLE WHITE FEMALE was a box-office smash during the summer season, grossing at a respectable $48 million.