Room for Rent

I really enjoyed this strange, sad, and laughable film. It has a lot of the truisms of life embedded in it. It's a step up from a Lifetime film with an odd lesson from a female perspective.

I like indie films, this is just a human piece... no action, gore, heavy drama, e.t.c. Just human nature. Linn shaye is always a winner for me, even in her lesser films, she's phenomenal. The human psyche is fascinating and watching her mentality be explained slowly was enjoyable.

Living in a suburban neighbourhood, a lonely widow (Lin Shaye) with something of a dark side to her personality takes in lodgers to help her financially and to make for much needed company. After befriending a woman (Valeska Miller) who came for a short stay, she takes in a good looking young man (Oliver Rayon) who she begins to obsess over and become possessive of.

Shaye is superb in this sweltering, sometimes claustrophobic thriller. Made on a small budget and benefitting from its Sedona setting, it is the type of film that would also been well suited to the post WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1963) host of films that followed in that film's wake in the mid 1960s. The suspense is well maintained and Shaye is at times chilling, but one is left wondering why some of these characters did not get out of the house sooner.

Fantastic lead performance, a lady saddled with a heavy load of regret. As the story unfolds, you understand the reasons for her actions and weird social manner. A life tormented by the actions of another. Funny but tragic. I felt for her... well played!

This is a movie along the lines of Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? with the main character, a little old lady, going a bit daft and getting dangerous. This is much better though. It grabbed me soon into it and had me squirming a couple of times. This little old lady is freshly widowed and when she finds out that her husband borrowed money and spent the money they had she decides to open her home as a BnB. She soon has a hunky lodger under whose spell she falls. Too bad for him.