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Business rating: 0.5/5 star
Star cast: Hillary Swank, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
What’s Good: Hillary Swank’s performance.
What’s Bad: The clichéd and poorly-written script; under-developed characters; the overt perverseness of the landlord’s character, which ends up being funny.
Verdict: The Resident provides no thrills or chills. Flop.
Loo break: Several.
Watch or Not?: Not recommended.
Hammer Film Productions’ The Resident is about a girl who moves into a new apartment to disastrous consequences.
Juliet Devereau (Hilary Swank) is a young doctor in New York. She has recently broken up with her boyfriend, Jack (Lee Pace), and is on the lookout for a new place to live in. Juliet is surprised when she finds a very good apartment in an old building in Brooklyn, that too, at a low rental.
Juliet soon becomes friendly with her new landlord, Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is a charming bachelor. She spends some time with Max every day after she gets back from the hospital. Feeling lonely one day, she tries to get intimate with Max but he is not forthcoming. Soon, Juliet starts interacting again with her estranged boyfriend, who is trying to get back with her. When Max learns of her patch-up, he feels jealous.
In the meantime, some Peeping Tom keeps watching Juliet get undressed from several secret holes in her apartment’s walls. There is also a secret passage around Juliet’s apartment which allows one to enter the house undetected. A flashback sequence then tells the audience that Max had seen Juliet at the hospital by chance, and that he had intended for her to choose his apartment only. Max is further revealed to be some sort of an obsessive pervert who gets off by stalking young females. Soon, Max starts spiking wine in Juliet’s house, and puts her into deep sleep every night. He then enters her house to satisfy his sexual urges. Suffering from headaches in the morning, Juliet suspects that something is amiss. She installs hidden cameras in her house and gives her blood sample for chemical analysis.
One day, Jack arrives at Juliet’s apartment unannounced while Juliet is away at work. Max, who is in Juliet’s apartment at that time, is caught unawares. On the same day, Juliet receives her blood report and realises that someone has been spiking her drinks. She rushes home to look for Jack as she is expecting him home that night. But Jack is missing. She also discovers the startling truth when she watches the video footage taken by the hidden cameras. What happens next? Does Juliet learn the truth about Max? Does Jack survive? The rest of the film answers these questions.
The Resident Review – Script Analysis
Robert Orr and Antti J. Jokinen’s story has not much novelty to offer. Juliet and Max’s characterisations are too simplistic and uni-dimensional. The screenplay is poorly written. Several moments in the drama, which are supposed to be chilling and repulsive, like the scene where Max slides under Juliet’s bed and tries to lick her finger, end up being unintentionally funny. The same goes for the climactic action sequence between the two principal characters.
The screenplay’s biggest flaw, however, is the complete absence of the mystery element. Though Max’s character is shown to be a good one in the beginning, his true nature is revealed too soon. As such, the audience’s curiosity is lost. From then on, the screenplay is full of inconsequential display of Max’s perversity – and even these scenes are poorly written.
The Resident Review – Star Performances & Direction
Hillary Swank does a fairly good job but her effort does little to elevate the film. Jeffrey Dean Morgan looks charming but fumbles in the poorly-written role. Lee Pace, Christopher Lee (as Max’s grandfather) and Aunjanue Ellis (as Juliet’s colleague) provide average support.
Antti J. Jokinen’s direction is pathetic. He fails to extract good performances from his cast or to maintain the tone of the drama throughout. John Ottman’s background score is clichéd. Guillermo Navarro’s cinematography is fair. Editing, by Stuart Levy and Bob Murawski, is okay.
The Resident Trailer
The Resident Review – Verdict
On the whole, The Resident is a poor fare. It will flop at the Indian box-office.
