Apartment Zero

An original film!! I enjoyed it from the moment it started!! A very appealing film. Wonderful cast!! A must for Geraldine Page fans (you have to see it to understand that)!!!! An unknown little gem!!

I had a strange memory of this film. Unsettling. Frightening. Every so often I meet someone who's a devotee of Apartment Zero and I kept meaning to see it again. Well, last night, it happened. It took me completely by surprise. Clearly the first time I saw it I hadn't venture "into" the apartment. This time I did. Colin Firth is, is, I can't find the words. He creates a character I've never seen before in a movie. The sort of character you keep at arms length. Too creepy and gloomy but before you know it, you're with him, you feel for him, you start to recognize him until you say, wow, that's me. Hart Bochner is pure perfection as the catalyst with the mask. The characters in the building, the Greek chorus, are a xenophobe's nightmare. Elegant, brittle, hilarious and yes, terrifying at times but look at it. Where is the terror coming from? It points in one direction but you go there on your own. Oh yes. This Zero is a Ten.

Two empty souls meet, live together, and ultimately face off in this unique psychological thriller.

Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) is captivated by his new apartment mate Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), who seems perfect. He's charming, charismatic, and understanding. So much so that nearly every tenant in the building is soon under his spell.

Yet, there's just something not quite right about Mr. Carney. Something dark and perhaps dangerous. Solving the mystery behind this man will prove to be the single biggest challenge of Adrian's life. That is, if he survives.

APARTMENT ZERO is a wonderfully quirky, somewhat twisted tale about skewed perceptions, sociopathy, and murder.

Definitely recommended for those seeking out the unusual...

I saw this movie 25 years ago and liked it. I learned the movie trivia game that they play throughout the film and have played it myself many times over the years. This is a very good movie. What it tells the viewer is that there are many sides to each person. We are all multifaceted and can't be defined by a single characteristic. This is so different than current films that seem to instantly define characters. " He's gay, she's black, they are violent etc." It's probably my favorite performance by Firth. Bochner is also excellent and watching it again made me wonder why he never had a bigger movie career. All of the tools were there. It's definitely worth a look see. Highly recommended.

I recently went through a sudden bout of Colin Firth obsession and was digging through his filmography when I came across this hidden gem. Apartment Zero is a gripping, intense, offbeat and immensely original psychological thriller filmed three decades ago. Some of the preferred techniques (like the frequent use of super close-ups and the style of background music) employed here might be reminiscent of vintage films from a bygone era. Much like in fashion, pop music and pop literature, certain cinematic styles, themes and techniques went in and out of fashion throughout time, sometimes induced by influential works of the time, changes in social and ideological landscape, or technological advances. This gives works from a certain era a decided "look" and "feel", which may seem dated when revisited decades later, though I do not think "dated" is necessarily a bad look. Retro can be cool and inspired. Since this film is older than me and I'm not much of a cinephile, I have no idea if this film was viewed as original and unusual when it first came out as it is now, or if films of that period all had that similar style or theme. But I can't help but be hopelessly pulled into the story and immersed in the protagonist's strange and oddly specific world, even though there was no flashy CGI or overly picturesque scenery and set pieces to grab one's attention at every turn. Like many reviewers has said before, the acting by the main characters and the supporting cast was superb. And there was nothing else to distract viewers from the characters and their story. Colin Firth gave an indelible performance that made his typecasting later in his career seem much more lamentable. Nothing was wasted, and the entire thing was a consistent, coherent, and unexpectedly convincing piece of story-telling. Since I watched this film during a Colin Firth binge, I can't help but notice the evident changes in the style of his films throughout the years, which I think more or less mirror the stylistic evolution of filmography as a whole in the past three decades. I'm not saying these changes are bad, but I do regret that films like this are less likely to be made or enjoy box office success nowadays.