adminDirector: Christian E. Christiansen
Cinema: Eastgate
Running time: 92 minutes
Type of film: Thriller
Age restriction: 16
Collegiate academic year in America runs from the second week in September to the third week in June.
Increasingly, in order to shorten their stay at college from the usual four years to three, students are opting to remain, during June, July and August, giving up the annual break.
Increasingly, over the years, since my attendance at four different universities in America in the 1950s, students enrol for this tertiary stage of their education, at colleges, which may be far distant from their family homes.
It is “what the college is noted for”, rather than proximity to home, which motivates the choice.
In the approximately 2 000 American colleges and universities, virtually all feature the opportunity for students to live “on grounds”, i.e. in dormitories, in which there are “two-to-a-room”.
Of the eight million roommates nationwide, choice is not normally given as to who will be yours. And yet, it is fully acknowledged that the personality of one’s roommate can be crucial in assuring success.
In the film “The Roommate”, Sarah and Rebecca are thrown together at a college in what we are led to believe (we are shown Sunset Boulevard) is suburban Los Angeles. The pairing proves to be a disaster for Sarah in that Rebecca is demonstrably and from the word “go” a nut case.
Are we allowed to cry out to the filmmakers that their script and storyline is palpably a cheat?
We learn over time that Rebecca’s peculiarities have been an open secret to not only her parents whom we meet but to all of those who supervised her previous academic efforts. In short, she would never have been allowed to enrol without conditions applied, and certainly would never have been foisted on some unlucky fellow student as is shown in this film.
The problems, which arise, for Sarah, as a result of her roommate’s mental condition, are as predictable as they are, in some cases, hilarious. Probably just what the cinema audience expects and delights in.
Occasionally these exploits become terrifying, even downright lethal, but they are exactly what that element of Harare’s population who “go to the movies” are seeking in return for their precious US dollars.
Online Reporter