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Single White Female (1992)

tomatometer

56

Average Rating: 5.1/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 4

No consensus yet.

audience

49

liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 37,804

My Rating

Movie Info

In this psychological thriller, a needy young woman finds fulfillment by trying to literally become her successful roommate. Attractive Manhattanite Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) has it all: a handsome beau, a rent-controlled apartment, and a promising career as a fashion designer. When boyfriend Sam (Steven Weber) proves unfaithful, Allison strikes out on her own but must use the classifieds to seek out a roommate in order to keep her spacious digs. In steps Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason

R, 1 hr. 43 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Feb 24, 1998

Columbia Pictures

Cast

All Critics (38) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (17) | DVD (4)

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.

April 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Despite excellent lead performances and numerous memorable scenes, this still feels like two different movies in one.

April 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
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The film is smooth, entertaining and believably sophisticated. It has far more sound psychological underpinnings than other movies of its type.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Schroeder goes through the motions -- the movie is elegantly made -- but this synthetic Hollywood package panders shamelessly to the baser instincts.

May 12, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The tension between its content and its trashy form is precisely the key to its vitality. If it were any less cheap, it wouldn't have the same edgy, gut-twisting jolt.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A waste of the talented Jennifer Jason Leigh and director Schroder

April 18, 2008 Comment
KPBS.org

Fluffy thriller, with moments of unintentional humour.

April 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

The climax is a long time coming, and you can't help feeling that the adaptation would work better as a play.

April 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

A stylishly shot thriller with several hair-raising moments. Considering that it's directed by Barbet Schroeder and stars Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, it's also a major disappointment.

April 14, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Great suspense thriller.

October 16, 2007 Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Borrowing heavily from Bergman's masterpiece Persona, this shallow psychological thriller has a good beginning but poor ending.

February 7, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

If his two leads are adequate to the slick mechanisms of a formulaic thriller, neither they nor Don Roos' script (based on the novel by John Lutz) offer any original insights into insatiable emotional dependence.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

decent 90s thriller

August 29, 2005 Comment
7M Pictures

This should be trash, but Fonda and Leigh's performances keep things believably chilling.

June 10, 2004 Comment
Capital Times (Madison, WI)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Single White Female

Predictable, not that good acting, except for the physcopath. Quite creepy at times but nothing that you haven't seen before.

January 18, 2009
murphmann93
Bethany Murphy

Super Reviewer

If I remember correctly this movie was thrilling, and I liked it. But I'd like to see it again, since I can't remember it that well.

September 6, 2010
ajv2688

Super Reviewer

    1. Mitchell Myerson: Black leather gloves means more than murdr, her hands are cold!
    – Submitted by John O (10 months ago)

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