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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: **
Movies about lustful obsessions of deranged minds that stalk their object of
desire are aplenty. There`s "Deep End", "Fatal Attraction",
"Unlawful Entry" and in Bollywood the Shah Rukh Khan starrer "Darr",
among others. To add another to the category and to have it stick in the
audiences` head, a new film would need a lot of chutzpah. "The
Resident" sadly lacks any, and ends up being another also-ran in the genre.
Juliet (Hilary Swank), a doctor, who is struggling with a break-up in New York,
rents a cheap but spacious apartment in Brooklyn. She feels attracted to her
landlord, but after a little fling dumps him. Meanwhile, she feels somebody`s
presence in her residence.
The problems with "The Resident" are many. First is the story, which
considering its decent predecessors, is wafer thin. Secondly, the film abandons
some basic logic like why would a woman who is herself a doctor, take so long to
send her blood sample for diagnostics. Then there is the plot of the landlord
with an injured man in the hospital. Who was he and how did he get there?
There are many sub-plots that are left half way, and many that are not
explained. Thus while other films suffer from the malady of being longer than
needed, this one suffers from exactly the opposite problem.
Many opportunities for menace, like the first part where the presence is shown
as a shadow, is lost. If explored in depth, to give the impression of a
supernatural occurrence, the twist in the middle would have been much more
exciting. Instead, the reliance of the writers on coincidence, which ideally
should be the last resort of an artist, kills even this little thrill.
Another important idea behind the film was perhaps to put the spotlight on
gender violence. Even in that respect it fails to many films out there that
outshine in this hands down. When it comes to voyeuristic films too "The
Resident" is the least thrilling of the available lot.
Riddled with cliche, and devoid of real menace, the film whimpers along aided by
loud background score that does not add to the tension, thrill or chill. One
wonders then what two Oscar winners, Hillary Swank and cinematographer Guillermo
Navarro are doing in such a wasted effort. Have they come to such hard times
that they have to be part of such monstrosity?