Customer Reviews

The Lodger

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a little surprised by the lukewarm reception to The Lodger. It is so far above any modern-day Ripper film, it definitely deserves a look.

I haven't seen the 1940s film, but I have seen - many times - the Hitchcock 1926 silent film. I felt the echoes of it throughout the remake. As a fan of Hitchcock, I found it pretty cool that the directors didn't muck it up like so many do when they try to contrive Hitchcock-like scenes.

Simon Baker is perfectly cast as The Lodger. He looks a bit younger with dark hair and has this secretive way about him that lends mystery to the character.

Frankly, I didn't pay much attention to the shenanigans of the PD, which seemed to be a turn off for other viewers, according to reviews here. Let's face it: This is a PR nightmare for the department, so someone needs to hang for it - and that just happens to be Alfred Molina's character. It works well into this film and casts a glare of suspicion on officers who may or may not be the killer.

Overall, The Lodger remake keeps you slightly off-balance while trying to guess the whodunit. Most, I think, won't know who it is until the very last frame.

Very Suspenseful! Love Simon Baker in this. Hope Davis plays a good crazy landlady. Would have liked to see more of these two together. Lots of Alfred Hitchcock type references. I would highly recommend this movie to any Alfred Hitchcock fan.

I am a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock's work, so I was happy to see there was a remake of this movie. Although I enjoy the old original Black & White movie, I found this updated color version quite good. I was mystified as to who the killer was until the very end. I didn't see this one coming. The help of a good cast, directing, sets, and music (reminded me of previous Hitchcock themes) made it all come together in a well rounded mystery. Good quality DVD with a few extras and decent replayability. If you enjoyed this, catch The Bedroom Window and Body Double (Widescreen Special Edition) which are reminescent of Hitchcocks style.

CA Luster

David Ondaatje directed this update of the 1926 Hitchcock film. Alfred Molina plays the lead detective Chandler Manning. Everything is going wrong for this guy. His wife's crazy; and maybe he drove her there. His daughter doesn't like him much. He thinks his partner is gay, which doesn't please him. To top it off, he botched evidence on his last really big case. While we're caught in Manning's downhill spiral, his partner Street is played by heartthrob Shane West. Street is new on the job, has enthusiasm and thoroughly upsets his partner. Manning's daughter Amanda is played by the lovely Rachael Leigh Cook. She does a good job in her brief screen time, making us relate to dysfunctional family moments. Police Captain Smith is played by Philip Baker Hall as a grizzly old bear who snarls through his scenes on screen. Interwoven with this story is a family where the father Bunting is played by Donal Logue. Bunting is always leaving the house and seems particularly unsupportive of his wife Ellen. Ellen is played by Hope Davis. We're never sure of what the reality is here. She rents the room and seems to have a wad full of cash to show for it, but maybe not. Malcolm is the lodger played by Simon Baker. The good looking star creates an air of mystery combined with zigzag emotions. The film left me scratching my head, not quite sure of what I'd just seen. So I wished for a bit more clarity. There are some nice moments in the film. Overall, it was an average cinematic experience. Enjoy!

The classic novel inspired by the Ripper murders gets an update and a change of venue. The focus alternates between intriguing scenes between Simon Baker in the title role and Hope Davis, and standard cop fare with a miscast Alfred Molina as a Hollywood cop teamed with his callow partner. They're working the Ripper angle of a spat of Hollywood killings and note such "little known" lore about the original crimes as the fact that Jack The Ripper was never caught. Um...okay. The picture's really well shot, but there are some pretentious touches of classical music playing during the murders. The final scenes though are suspenseful and at least you don't see the resolution coming from a mile off. I just wish the picture had focused more on the Davis-Baker relationship, as the two stars are quite good.

"The Lodger", orginally a novel about the identity of Jack the Ripper, the 19th century serial killer who terorized London prostitutes and was never caught, has been done as a play and now several times as a movie. This latest version features a strong cast in a darkly atmospheric thriller heavy on Ripperology and loaded with suspects.

The movie opens on a rainy night in West Hollywood. A senior detective is summoned to the scene of the horrifying murder of a prostitute. As he and his rookie partner investigate this crime and a second similar murder, the parallels with the crimes of an earlier serial killer, just executed, and with the Jack the Ripper case become painfully apparent.

Elsewhere in West Hollywood, a financially strapped couple rent a room to a mysterious young man who pays cash in advance and insists on complete privacy. Ellen, the wife, interacts with the lodger. She may be mentally disturbed and we are never quite certain whether the portions of the movie we experience through her eyes are real or the product of her troubled imagination.

As the movie spins rapidly to its climax, the audience is presented with a confusing array of clues that cleverly keep all the potential suspects in play to the peneultimate scene. The plot is further muddied by the possibility that one or more of the suspects may have been set up by the real killer. The senior detective (Alfred Molina) is troubled by family issues and obcessed with the Ripper murders. The landlords Joe and Ellen Bunting (Donal Logue and a superbly haunting Hope Davis) cannot entirely account for their whereabouts. The mysterious lodger (an enigmatic, dark-haired Simon Baker) is almost too obvious a suspect. Even the rookie partner (Shane West) is not what he claims to be.

For such a promising premise and an excellent cast, the movie never quite hits its stride as a thriller. The drab production values seem more suited to a TV movie, while a polemic about capital punishment and an internal investigation into the senior detective seem awkward and stagey. Nevertheless, "The Lodger" largely succeeds as suspense and is highly recommended as worthwile entertainment for its brief (95 minutes) running time.

A string of movies has been made from Marie Lowndes 1913 book, "The Lodger," starting in the silent era. The theme of an unsuspecting landlady renting a room to Jack the Ripper is an irresistible one. This latest version has a few interesting twists to offer. It centers around the investigation of a series of murders that the police begin to believe must be the work of some copy-cat Jack recreating the Ripper's murders in modern-day LA.

The film has some bad lighting and plays a little too indistinct and smudgy on the TV screen. However, the Director's occasional use of speeded-up, cut-frame action is more interesting. The technique briefly recalls the way silent movies, made closer to the time when the real Jack the Ripper prowled, have usually looked during modern viewings. It also frighteningly suggests someone's fragmented, demented slashing with a knife.

But some of the acting/directing is less inspired. Alfred Molina seems miscast as the detective and often lumbers the action with histrionics. The conflicts he has with his superior are overwhelmingly clichéd. (Hasn't any police commander seen enough film to know that a maverick detective's instincts should always be trusted?) Here the conflict between Molina and his superior is so dragged-in-by-the-ears, so over-the-top - it verges on the comical. During their contrived fulminations, Philip Baker Hall almost seems to be reprising his hilarious turn as that library detective on "Seinfeld" who comes after "Joyboy" Jerry for a book that's decades overdue.

Offsetting these hackneyed characterizations is Simon Baker's seductively mysterious portrayal of the lodger, and Hope Davis' complex, intriguing portrayal of a housewife adrift in her unsatisfying life. However, if you have the time or inclination to watch only one or two of the movies based on the Lowndes' book," I suggest you check out Laird Cregar's classic 1940's "The Lodger" and what is in effect its companion piece, "Hangover Square."

When a series of gorily murdered prostitutes is found in West Hollywood, PD detective and Jack the Ripper expert Charlie Manning is hot on the case. Charlie is a mess; his wife has attempted suicide and his daughter won't talk to him, but he soldiers on, spurred by the wrongful execution of the man who was tried for similar murders a couple of years before. Scenes of the police investigation are interwoven with dreamy scenes of a financially strapped couple who rent a room to a mysterious man. Malcolm the lodger, played by the inimitable Simon Baker, only interacts with the wife and it's evident she has some psychological problems.

As more and more similarities between the West Hollywood murders and Jack the Ripper's spree are uncovered, the press is demanding an explanation for the failure of the police to find the killer. Charlie Manning becomes the sacrificial lamb for the department, though he's presented the powers that be with plenty of ammunition. In the meantime, Maloolm has taken to nighttime excursions, observed by the increasingly fascinated Ellen Bunting.

While The Lodger has some rough edges, it's a taut, well done thriller that keeps even the most jaded viewer guessing until the end. Though the crime is solved, the ending leaves a question and a delicious chill.

As I was watching, I enjoyed it, but the more distance I get from it, the less memorable it becomes. At one point Malcolm tells Ellen, "I'm not particular ... about food." If you're not too particular either, then it could be just the light taste of Ripper mayhem that you've been craving since being sucked in by the disappointingly unsatisfying From Hell and other similar fare. Otherwise, you may want to give it a pass.

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I bought this DVD only because of Simon Baker. But I didn't like the person he portrayed. It must have been good acting for me ever not to like him. Well done again.