The Lodger (2009)

The Lodger is a third remake and based on the book written by Marie Belloc Lowndes. It is a fast-paced thriller with a multi-dimensional plot that will keep you guessing until the very end. I was immediately drawn in and my heart was racing as the dramatic conclusion of this film approached.

The movie takes place in West Hollywood, California. Seven years ago, two prostitutes had been killed in a fashion emulating the murder tactics of the infamous Jack the Ripper. Detective Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina) had substantiated enough evidence against Alonzo Rodriguez to have him convicted and executed for these murders. However, in the present, prostitutes are being murdered once again in nearly the same fashion as the two from seven years ago. Thus, the race is on to find the real killer.

One of the main characters in the film is a woman named Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) who lives in the town. Her husband Joe (Donal Loque) is brutal towards her and perhaps one of the negative aspects of this movie are that Ellen and her husband's characters are not all that believable. It's hard to believe that a woman's husband is out all the time and never home and it's hard to believe that Ellen stays with him and doesn't even put up much of an argument about it. However, she is mentally ill. She experiences delusions and hallucinations that cause her to have trouble differentiating from what is real and what is not. So perhaps the fact that she's mentally ill restricts her from leaving or doing anything about her husband's behavior which would make perfect sense. Ellen's illness comes into play when a lodger moves into the guest house out in the backyard. The lodger, whose name is Malcom (Simon Baker), asks though that nobody disturb him under any circumstances. Due to this, Ellen never lets Joe meet the lodger and Joe thinks he is not real, that Ellen made him up in her mind. But is the lodger real?

The plot is most definitely the best aspect of this movie and the story itself is enough to make this a fantastic thriller! But before I get into that, one of the things that kept me entertained was learning so much about Jack the Ripper through the portrayal of the killings in the film. The filmers obviously did their research. Comparisons between the murders in this movie and the murders committed by Jack the Ripper were made and explained in excellent detail by Detective Manning and his associates, including his young rookie detective sidekick Street Wilkenson (Shane West). It is truly fascinating!

As I mentioned before, the multi-dimensional plot is what really gives the movie its momentum and keeps it going. We switch off constantly between Manning and Wilkenson chasing the killer and Ellen's encounters with her husband and the lodger. There is also an additional subplot that gives us a bit of background on Detective Manning and the recent issues he's been having with his own mentally ill wife (Mel Harris) and his resentful daughter Amanda (Rachael Leigh Cook).  This adds good exposition to the film and helps the audience understand why Manning acts the way he does and even elicits some sympathy for him. Both main plots though are interesting and suspenseful and the viewer cannot wait for everything to come together at the end and trust me, it does!

The film is also suspenseful because of two simple questions: Who's the killer? and is the lodger real? In terms of who the killer is, throughout the movie, different pieces of evidence lead the audience to believe that the killer could be Detective Manning, Ellen's husband Joe, Malcom the lodger, and hell maybe even Ellen herself as we know she is crazy. The plot does a good job of making you believe that it is one of these people at a certain point, then the direction changes and points to someone else. More importantly though, does the lodger exist? And if so, is he the killer? These aspects of the movie made it an extremely suspenseful flick. 

Besides the minor issues I mentioned with the characters of Ellen and Joe earlier, the acting was fairly exceptional, especially Detective Manning and the lodger. Both were very suspicious as the detective steals pieces of classified evidence and as I said earlier, Malcom pleads that nobody disturb him at all. Their characters add significantly to the level of tension and suspense elicited from the audience.

The only real complaint I have about this movie is that the camerawork was a bit amateurish and the kill scenes were not at all graphic or impressive. Nonetheless, the suspenseful plot makes up for this. I do highly recommend that you watch this movie if you like being on the edge of your seat waiting for something shocking to happen!

BaD BiRdS:: EXCELLENT!!

~MJ Aufiero