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The Resident (2011)

Image Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc Released: 3/29/2011

All Ratings out of

Movie:
1/2
Video:
1/2
Audio:

Extras: 1/2


Review by Mike Long, Posted on 3/27/2011

We've talked about a lot of movies in the "I've heard of these people, why haven't I heard of this movie?" corner, and one question constantly comes to mind. How do actors, especially seasoned veterans, choose their next project? Let's take Hilary Swank for example. The last movie of hers that I reviewed was Conviction, and that may as well have been an "I.H.O.T.P.W.H.I.H.O.T.M." entry. Now, we're taking a look at The Resident. Swank has been acting since she was 16 years old, shouldn't she have plenty of money. (She was on sixteen episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, that had to have paid well.) What would make a multiple Oscar winner want to appear in a movie like this?

Swank stars in The Resident as Juliet Devereau, an emergency room doctor who lives in New York City. Due to recent relationship issues, she needs to find a new place to live. After checking some apartment, she finds one in Brooklyn, and meets the landlord, Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who is busy remodeling the apartment. Juliet is impressed with the spacious place and can't believe the low price Max quotes. He explains that due to some extra expenses involved and the subway noise, he has to ask that price. Juliet takes it and moves in immediately. As she's settling into her new place, she begins to hear odd noises around the apartment. We quickly learn that someone has access to the place, as well as a series of peepholes throughout the building, so that they can see Juliet doing her most intimate activities. Soon, Juliet is being drugged by this person, thus making her late for work. When she considers getting back together with her ex (Lee Pace), the stalker becomes violent.

There are two major problems with The Resident, the story and casting, with story being the worse offender of the two. (Spoiler Alert: It's difficult to discuss The Resident without revealing a specific plot point. However, this twist is uncovered pretty early in the movie, so I don't feel that bad about it. However, if you want to be completely in the dark, I'd recommend that you skip down two paragraphs.) The first thing that jumped out at me about The Resident is that I'd seen it all before. The second that Juiet walked into the apartment and was given a price which was too good to be true, we knew that we were in cliche land. How many movies have we seen where someone moves into a new place or a motel room and we learn that someone is spying on them? From Crawlspace to Hider in the House, the idea of someone behind the walls spying on an unsuspecting person is not a new one. At one point, I turned to my wife and said, "Someone saw Porky's one too many times." The first half of the film wants to be a mystery, but there are only two other people living in the building as far as I can tell -- Max and his grandfather (Christopher Lee) -- so we don't have many suspects. (Only a movie set on a deserted island could have less suspects.) The only original thing happening here is that The Resident decides to reveal that Max is the stalker fairly early in the movie instead of dragging things out. From this point on, the movie is supposed to be an exercise in suspense as we watch Max and Juliet interact, but the movie simply doesn't work.

Which brings us to our second point, the cast. Jeffrey Dean Morgan simply isn't a good choice as the psycho. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with his acting range, but even as a stalker, he seems like a likable guy. We're waiting for Max to snap, but even when it comes, he's not that scary. And, as he doesn't come off as creepy or repugnant, the scenes in which he's stalking Juliet simply aren't effective. When he's touching her things, or even her, it should make our skin crawl, but it simply doesn't. In fact, as I don't find Hilary Swank attractive, I felt that, if anything, she should have been stalking him. As far as her role, Swank is adequate, and for those of you who care, she is briefly nude. However, she isn't given much to work with here, as all Juliet does is drink wine and investigate odd noises.

Again, what would make Swank and Morgan want to appear in a movie which brings nothing new to the table? Was it the chance to work with Finnish documentary and music video director Antti Jokinen, who is making his feature film debut here? I doubt it. But, hey, the movie, which was shot in 2009, did play theatrically in Kuwait. That has to count for something. The history of "Peeping Tom" cinema, and there are many choices out there better than The Resident.

The Resident taught me that sometimes art openings take place in the middle of the day on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Image Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look very good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The picture is nicely detailed and we can make out the textures on objects. The image has a nice depth as well. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.4 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are notably good, as demonstrated by the city street sounds. We get many good examples of impressive stereo and surround effects from the sounds which Juliet hears in the apartment. These comes from all channels and create a real sense of space. The finale produces some mild subwoofer effects.

The only extra on The Resident Blu-ray Disc is a TRAILER for the film.

Review by Mike Long.  Copyright 2011.