This rehash of Barbet Schroeder's crazy-roommate thriller
Single White Female (1992) tries for Schroeder's high style and knowing kitsch, along with some pseudo-Hitchcockian suspense and Hollywood hottie titillation, but fails completely. Minka Kelly plays a sunnily optimistic Iowa schoolgirl who arrives at "Los Angeles University," where the dorm rooms are vast, luxurious, and nearly empty of books and the campus's "star professor" (Billy Zane) teaches a course in fashion. Unfortunately her psycho roommate (Leighton Meester of the TV series
Gossip Girl) takes one look at her and wants to assault anyone who gets near her, including her kitten. Christian E. Christiansen directed this stinker, which lacks even unintentional humor.
By
Michael Wilmington