Single White Female (1992)

	Directed by: Barbet Schroeder	COUNTRY USA GENRE Thriller/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Enslig ung kvinne RUNNING TIME 107 minutes
	Produced by: Barbet Schroeder
	Written by (based on a book by Jon Lutz): Don Roos

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Allison Jones	Bridget Fonda
Hedra Carlson	Jennifer Jason Leigh
Sam Rawson	Steven Weber
Graham Knox	Peter Friedman	½
Mitchell Meyerson	Stephen Tobolowsky	½

Review

Fresh from his hugely successful Reversal of Fortune, Barbet Schroeder turned to this downward-spiralling thriller about career-woman Bridget Fonda and her new roommate from hell played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. The accomplished performances and periodically intriguing script keep the film alive early on, even though Schroeder's direction is bland and mundane. His film looks good; it has great production values and wonderful sets, but at the most crucial plot turns, Schroeder is surprisingly conventional and unimaginative. It doesn't help that screenwriter Don Roos pillages the genre vault to excess – especially towards the end, when Single White Female descends into a stock horror flick. There is edge and suspense, but only for a few moments at a time – such as when Hedra impersonates Allison on a visit to Sam, or when Allison uses her shrewdness to reveal some of Hedra's weaknesses. In contrast to the ordinary horror film, both leads are complex, dual-natured characters. Unfortunately, Schroeder too rarely knows how to truly explore and utilise them for effect.