Single White Female (1992)

Well Deserved Praise

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

First, I wanted to watch it because of Bridget, but after watching recently DC and FB, I felt it was worthy too because of Jennifer. So their meeting should be engaging and it has been in fact more than that because the movie challenged me in addition on several personal items. Because I live in one of the poshest area of Paris but in a monk or prisoner cell size studio, I'm highly sensitive to stories that focus on houses (like Dark Water). Here, the place is fantastic because this is an old NYC building, with no modern appliances, high ceilings, maze rooms, and individualistic neighbors… The other development that speaks to me is the twin factor as I'm indeed one. I think it's a heavy factor to build own's personality because it's hard to tie and it's always comparison. In a way, you don't exist by yourself as you are always stuck with your twin. So I could understand the troubles Jenny could feel and her parasitic mood. The last part of the movie is maybe less believable but it's interesting as it's a sort of Misery but in a city! Usually we can think that abductees are hidden in recluse country locations but cities are like a wild jungle and with blind and mind their own business neighbors, this can happen right next door!So the expected meeting was really captivating, gripping, moving and scary as Bridget is really this cool, smiling, careless and helping girl and Jenny is rather this fragile, determined, brooding one….

The 1990's was a decade that gave birth to many erotically themed thrillers. Single White Female is just one of these thrillers, focusing on two female roommates in which one is obsessed with the other and tries to take over her life. The film is by no means the best of its decade crazed genre but it is also by no means the worst.The acting is average with one exception. Jennifer Jason Leigh performance as the neurotic Hedra Carlson is excellent, showing her range as she progresses from shy to full psycho over the course of the film. Everyone else in the film is OK, Bridget Fonda isn't particularly likable and there isn't much there to make you care about her character. However as the film progresses I began to side with Fonda's character not because I cared about her but because I disliked Leigh's sadistic character far more. Log story short this film is a good vehicle for Jennifer Jason Leigh to show off her acting chops which she does so brilliantly.The films escalation of events started off great. The gradual progression starting with subtle signs of Hedra's obsession was fantastic. These subtle signs would take the form of; deleting voice mails left by Allie's boyfriend and recreating a photo from Hedras past (her sister and the dog). The subtlety gave a feeling that something wasn't quite right and left me psychologically evaluating Hedra. Sadly the film becomes less than subtle as the film continues and the explanation to questions created are executed poorly. The reason for Hedra's obsession is a bit confused. The breadcrumb evidence at the start imply that Hedra attempts to fill the void her sisters death has created by finding a replacement. There is also a rather brief implication that she is attracted to Allie sexually. Hedra is a complex character but one I think wasn't entirely thought through.If Hedra's motives were indeed because she was attracted to Allie and wanted to be with her, then it should have been far clearer and dominant than it was. The film tries to be an erotic thriller but really just throws in gratuitous nudity into it in order to classify. If lesbian attraction was one of Hedra's reasons for obsession, then the film could have created sexual tension between the two leads which could have been stronger than what tension that was actually created. In doing this I feel the film could have been a far more gripping erotic thriller rather than one that just throws tits in your face in the hope it makes the cut.The ending isn't great. Once the action has concluded we are greeted with a 1-2 minute epilogue which attempts to justify Hedra's actions and reveal what happened next for Allie. This is a rather lazy technique which feels rushed and ends the film on less of a bang and more of a fizzle.Overall Single White Female is a fairly disappointing film. I had little to no expectations going in and i still managed to come out disappointed. It has some redeeming qualities but there are so many changes that I feel could have been made to create a far better film. At best this is a Jennifer Jason Leigh vehicle and at worst its a rather desperate attempt at an erotic thriller.

I thought the storyline of this film was pretty awful. I say, they thought that this would definitely look like the movie 'The Shining' and win lots of awards. It really doesn't go that far to be quite honest with you.Some people say it's odd, in my opinion, it actually is rather daft and stupid. I think weirder movies are rather good then non weird. I wouldn't like to be the one who sat the rest and didn't enjoy it. I sat down looking at this for 20 minutes and skipped to minutes of the credits. I would love to get those twenty minutes back but unfortunately, it's a human error you make when you hate something!I wouldn't consider people watching this, it's crap!

"New friend turned psycho" films have been made before, multiple times, but this was a good one. It is hard to remember sometimes which came first. Was it "Play Misty for Me" or that one with Glenn Close? The stereotypical gay friend upstairs, and the fiancé who can't seem to keep himself zipped up. Yet even the less than perfect men in the movie aren't all bad. Sure the client boss enjoys a little sexual harassment, and the fiancé isn't perfectly faithful, but then in reality who is morally perfect in life? And while both are jerks in different ways, poetic justice sets in when they both get dispatched permanently, while the gay friend only suffers a concussion from which he timely revives and saves Bridget Fonda from being killed by psycho woman. The movie is true in that most people are neither all good or all bad, and that once in a long while you run into someone who is a sociopath and frankly diabolical tendencies are breathtaking.