It's an A-list thriller directed by Barbet Schroeder (Reversal of Fortune, Barfly ) and graced with wonderful performances by Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh. [14 Aug 1992, p.G5]
Single White Female is a 1992 drama thriller starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh... After Allie Jones (Bridget Fonda) realises her partner maybe cheating on her I think they separate or break up meaning there's a free space available in Allie's apartment and she's lonely so starts advertising for a room mate. Jennifer Jason Leigh gets to move in as her room mate and she plays Hedy Carlson in the film and both women seem to get on great and connect well which is good. However things take a turn for the worst when Bridget Fonda's dog dies and Bridget catches her room mate playing with herself in bed and dressing like her and immitating her appearance and hair. A suspenseful film with some violence and tension and nudity. Thoroughly enjoyable and I can't see any problems or bad things about the movie or negative things apart from it's a bit outdated now. Still entertaining but NOT for kids to watch because of scenes of sex and nudity!
My obsession with Bridget Fonda (Point of no Return) began with this twisted, erotic thriller that I went to the theater to see when I was 12. As a young impressionable **** boy I found her performance riveting she was stylish, gorgeous and just everything I wanted to be at the time. Well let's get to the movie, Fonda stars as Ally a young woman who discovers her fiancee is cheating on her and throws him out. She than advertises for a new room mate and after some duds meets Hedra Carlson played by a perfectly psychotic Jennifer Jason Leigh. Heddy becomes obsessed with Ally and starts to impersonate her from her hairstyle to having relations with her fiancee. It soon escalates into terror as Ally finds out that Heddy is capable of much more than she thinks. It all leads up to an edge of your seat finale that makes this one of the premiere 90s thrillers like hand that rocks the cradle, basic instinct and sliver. The performances are solid all around and the direction from Barbet Schroeder is stylish and edge of your seat. Making this an intense, unforgettable thrill ride.
Budget: $16M
Box Office: $84M
8.75/10
This is a story which, in other hands, could have simply been an all-female slasher movie, but Barbet Schroeder, who produced and directed it, has a mordant humor that pushes the material over the top. It is a slasher movie, and a little more.
As an esthetic work, the movie is dismissable. As a social artifact, however, it's intriguing. Textually and sub-textually, intentionally or inadvertently, just what is being said here? [14 Aug 1992]
As a psychological case study this is intelligent and adept, with fine performances by both of the lead actresses, and none of the Hitchcockian implications are lost on Schroeder. But there's something dehumanizing about 90s horror thrillers that all but defeats the film's impulses toward seriousness; no matter how much the filmmakers work to make the characters real, the genre contrives to turn them into functions and props.
Single White Female is a frustrating proposition. It has impact, given its two stars. But it spends a lot of time trying to get its footing, find its tone and rhythm. Surprisingly, Schroeder has trouble pacing a film any one of a dozen Hollywood hacks could have handled more sure-handedly. [14 Aug 1992, p.41]
Don Roos's script for Single White Female, from the 1990 potboiler SWF Seeks Same, by John Lutz, is as empty as a hack's head. Schroeder goes through the motions — the movie is elegantly made — but this synthetic Hollywood package panders shamelessly to the baser instincts.
The single white females were beautiful and plenty naked. Camera movement was a annoyingly shaky at times. Solid music, dialogue and effects. It was a good thriller but not as good as other similar ones. The control this woman has involves her being violent and not clever. The suspense isn't as intense as it should be.
This film became very famous, but I don't know how much it deserves its fame. In fact, I found it quite banal and with almost nothing to set it apart from all other psychological thrillers. In this case, it's the story of a young woman looking for a roommate, in order to rent a room and share the expenses of the apartment. She ends up renting it to the only person she should never open the door to: a young woman who is apparently innocent, but who is totally psychopathic and can put her life at risk. The plot is good, but it cannot avoid a sense of mediumship that prevails throughout the film. Despite this, there are some scenes (such as the death of the dog for example) that work wonderfully and leave us suspended and intrigued.
The cast is good enough, but too bland and develops average performances in characters that are generally uninteresting or despicable. The cast (and also the script) lack a palatable character that the audience can connect with. Bridget Fonda achieved some notoriety with this film, but left us a very uninteresting heroine with little personality. Steven Weber, who gave life to the heroine's treacherous boyfriend, is hampered by the fact that the character is horrible, very ambiguous and characterized by a lack of morals. Even more unpleasant and worthy of our disgust is the character of Stephen Tobolowsky who, despite this, was good enough to give him credibility. Much more interesting was the performance of Jennifer Jason Leigh, in the role of the villain, harmoniously combining sweetness, an innocent aspect and seemingly endless doses of coldness and calculus. The film also has a very good interpretation of Peter Friedman in the role of a friendly lonely neighbor.
Technically, it is an uninteresting film. With a very regular rhythm, there is no brooding over events or dead moments. Cinematography is the standard of the time, and it does not differ from the look it had at the time. There are some good action scenes and several more violent scenes, but they work really well. The sets, costumes and effects are within what we could expect and are not surprising, nor the soundtrack.