"Single White Female" is about a software designer named Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) who kicks her boyfriend Sam Lawson (Steven Weber) to the curve after having discovered he's been having secret affairs with his ex-wife. Desperate into finding a roommate to help her out financially, she brings in a frumpy bookstore employee named Hedy Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to fill the voids and before you know it, they become the best of friends. But when Sam tries to reconcile with Allison, Hedy's sanity becomes dead as vengeance becomes her priority by trying to keep them apart even if it leads to murder as a way to protect her from getting her heart broken again.
Ever since the 1990 Stephen King adaptation Oscar-winning thriller "Misery", many of these psycho-thrillers were cropping up at the time. From "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", to "The Good Son", to "Pacific Heights" and my personal favourite "Unlawful Entry". The common thread of these stories focuses on the realms of middle-class suburbanites putting their trust in someone at first and then before you know it, the person who you've trusted becomes not who he/she is cut out to be. Before you know, it when you least expected, the trusted ones have plots to go as far as to get what they want, even if it means to kill someone along the way with no remorse of conscious of what they're doing. To me these kinds of thrillers are more fun to watch than the slasher films that Jason and Freddy had done in the 1980's. In "Single White Female", the message is that what you may see in the papers may look good in writing, only to realize that you were better off without what you just purchased.
As a psychological thriller, "Single White Female" was not as good as the ones Alfred Hitchcock directed, but it's still a fun movie to enjoy and succeeds in this sub-genre. Where it went wrong was that it was too by-the-numbers in terms of its delivery. Director Barbet Schroeder provides the shock value too early in the film that we never get the time to savour the moments. The dog's unfortunate demise, the subliminal messages about the broken iron grille and voices culminating from the apartment vents. The more diabolical scenes stem from when Hedy cuts her hair, dyes it from brunette to ginger and starts wearing Allison's clothes. It was strange, erotic, but quite effective especially when she performs oral sex towards Sam who's oblivious that it's not Allison that's seducing him. But then there are moments where it can be quite surreal when the stab in the head via stiletto shoe displays an awkward scene which feels very cartoon like and seems out of place in a thriller like this. The Victorian apartment set-up is actually effective for a film of this genre.
Even though she comes from a long list of A-list movie performers in her family which includes Peter, Henry and Jane Fonda, Bridget Fonda never was able to reach that pinnacle. Her character was quite cold and not entirely that effective. Jennifer Jason Leigh fares much better as the evil roommate Hedy (especially when she dresses like Allison and becomes her evil duplicate), and when her insanity explodes, we are all anticipating as to what menace she's going to commit to next. It's her twitch and nervous delivery lines is what gets grating at times.
"Single White Female" to this day stands out as a good psycho- thriller. Not necessarily the best, but has an angle toward this genre that is original and stands out better than the mindless slasher films that were popular in the 1980's. The acting was not the best, but not the worst either and even though there were some engaging scenes, its formula was still by-the-numbers in its delivery. In 2002, Schroeder would direct another psycho-thriller "Murder By Numbers", which fared better as an homage to the actual Leopold and Loeb murders. In 2005, a sequel to "Single White Female" came out with "Single White Female 2:The Psycho" where Kirsten Miller and Brook Burns play similar characters to the ones Fonda and Leigh played. Who knew?
Ever since the 1990 Stephen King adaptation Oscar-winning thriller "Misery", many of these psycho-thrillers were cropping up at the time. From "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", to "The Good Son", to "Pacific Heights" and my personal favourite "Unlawful Entry". The common thread of these stories focuses on the realms of middle-class suburbanites putting their trust in someone at first and then before you know it, the person who you've trusted becomes not who he/she is cut out to be. Before you know, it when you least expected, the trusted ones have plots to go as far as to get what they want, even if it means to kill someone along the way with no remorse of conscious of what they're doing. To me these kinds of thrillers are more fun to watch than the slasher films that Jason and Freddy had done in the 1980's. In "Single White Female", the message is that what you may see in the papers may look good in writing, only to realize that you were better off without what you just purchased.
As a psychological thriller, "Single White Female" was not as good as the ones Alfred Hitchcock directed, but it's still a fun movie to enjoy and succeeds in this sub-genre. Where it went wrong was that it was too by-the-numbers in terms of its delivery. Director Barbet Schroeder provides the shock value too early in the film that we never get the time to savour the moments. The dog's unfortunate demise, the subliminal messages about the broken iron grille and voices culminating from the apartment vents. The more diabolical scenes stem from when Hedy cuts her hair, dyes it from brunette to ginger and starts wearing Allison's clothes. It was strange, erotic, but quite effective especially when she performs oral sex towards Sam who's oblivious that it's not Allison that's seducing him. But then there are moments where it can be quite surreal when the stab in the head via stiletto shoe displays an awkward scene which feels very cartoon like and seems out of place in a thriller like this. The Victorian apartment set-up is actually effective for a film of this genre.
Even though she comes from a long list of A-list movie performers in her family which includes Peter, Henry and Jane Fonda, Bridget Fonda never was able to reach that pinnacle. Her character was quite cold and not entirely that effective. Jennifer Jason Leigh fares much better as the evil roommate Hedy (especially when she dresses like Allison and becomes her evil duplicate), and when her insanity explodes, we are all anticipating as to what menace she's going to commit to next. It's her twitch and nervous delivery lines is what gets grating at times.
"Single White Female" to this day stands out as a good psycho- thriller. Not necessarily the best, but has an angle toward this genre that is original and stands out better than the mindless slasher films that were popular in the 1980's. The acting was not the best, but not the worst either and even though there were some engaging scenes, its formula was still by-the-numbers in its delivery. In 2002, Schroeder would direct another psycho-thriller "Murder By Numbers", which fared better as an homage to the actual Leopold and Loeb murders. In 2005, a sequel to "Single White Female" came out with "Single White Female 2:The Psycho" where Kirsten Miller and Brook Burns play similar characters to the ones Fonda and Leigh played. Who knew?