| Columbia Pictures | Release Date: August 14, 1992 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
14
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
|
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Critic Reviews
A first-class thriller that will strike a terrifying note with anyone who's ever met the roommate from hell. [12 Aug 1992]
Schroeder's refusal to choose moral sides gives the psychological confrontation between the women the kind of weird, mutually accepted form of diseased codependency that Claus and Sunny von Bulow shared in his previous film, Reversal of Fortune. In Single White Female, Schroeder leaves the subtext unresolved, but manages to strike a very raw nerve.
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Schroeder brings a decidedly un-Hollywood approach to the material, which is both the source of the film's greatest aesthetic strength (it is unusually attentive to questions of character and form) and most crippling commercial weakness. American audiences, used to nonstop action, will probably grow impatient with Schroeder's slow, nuanced approach.
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It's an A-list thriller directed by Barbet Schroeder (Reversal of Fortune, Barfly ) and graced with wonderful performances by Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh. [14 Aug 1992, p.G5]
Even at its silliest, it's a better picture than most, with surprises and inventive turns and performances that remain strong throughout. [14 Aug 1992, p.C1]
Lutz created more than just a mystery yarn, and Don Roos' screenplay and Schroeder's direction take the story even further and, of course, make it a lot more visual. [14 Aug 1992, p.3G]
Cross Ingmar Bergman's Persona with Roman Polanski's oeuvre and you get a workable mix ultimately sunk by standard slasher silliness. [14 Aug 1992, p.4D]
For the most part, it works well at this level with the added bonus of some unexpected intellectual twists. The predominant thing that bogs down SWF is the script. It has too many plot holes to be fully believable and too little psychological background on our unbalanced roomie (and when it is revealed, it's revealed all in one stroke).
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If you were to subtract the strikingly mature and subtly nuanced performances of Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female would be almost indistinguishable from the majority of half-baked, pseudo-psychological thrillers that Fatal Attraction brought into vogue. [14 Aug 1992, p.3]
As an esthetic work, the movie is dismissable. As a social artifact, however, it's intriguing. Textually and sub-textually, intentionally or inadvertently, just what is being said here? [14 Aug 1992]
As a psychological case study this is intelligent and adept, with fine performances by both of the lead actresses, and none of the Hitchcockian implications are lost on Schroeder. But there's something dehumanizing about 90s horror thrillers that all but defeats the film's impulses toward seriousness; no matter how much the filmmakers work to make the characters real, the genre contrives to turn them into functions and props.
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Although the second half of the picture (which could have been called Single White Females Can't Live Together) is mostly a waste, the early scenes are tantalizing enough to be worth a look. [14 Aug 1992, p.17]
Schroeder signposts the imminent homicidal carnage right from the start (stay out of that laundry room!). If his two leads are adequate to the slick mechanisms of a formulaic thriller, neither they nor Don Roos' script (based on the novel by John Lutz) offer any original insights into insatiable emotional dependence.
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Single White Female is a frustrating proposition. It has impact, given its two stars. But it spends a lot of time trying to get its footing, find its tone and rhythm. Surprisingly, Schroeder has trouble pacing a film any one of a dozen Hollywood hacks could have handled more sure-handedly. [14 Aug 1992, p.41]
Single White Female is simply Fatal Attraction or Final Analysis in a new locale. Superbly crafted, yet unremittingly violent, it's the cinematic equivalent of being bludgeoned for two hours. [14 Aug 1992, p.21]
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