Roman Review from Horroryearbook.com
3 1/2 out of 4 Stars
Roman sits on his couch facing his open window, beer and cigarette in hand. He awaits the girl in red who, like clockwork, goes into her apartment at five-thirty every day. It is the only good part of his day. He will never talk to her of his own volition, though. Much like sculptures of ash, he fears they will crumble if he touches them. He prefers the more secure role as observer. The fact that his open window is the same aspect ratio of the movie he’s in is an irony not lost.
Angela Bettis’ ROMAN is nothing short of engrossing. It embodies slow fear, follows film noir conventions, yet somehow comes off as organic. That it should garner comparisons to the Coen Brothers classic BLOOD SIMPLE is not surprising. The fact that it earns every last one of them is.
The writer-director of MAY and THE WOODS Lucky McKee (from his own screenplay) plays Roman, a welder who rarely speaks. His co-workers disparage him, he has no friends, rarely leaves his apartment once he gets home and doesn’t even own a TV. The only thing that brings him any kind of hope or solace from the loneliness is The Girl (an unnamed character played by VERONICA MARS’ Kristen Bell).
They come into contact with each other on the roof of their apartment complex and share a beer. He winds up in his apartment one day just to talk, this leads to a kiss, and then it leads to The Girl’s accidental death at the hands of the obsessive Roman. The ensuing investigation that would have such a man sweating bullets in another, lesser movie is handled in one scene, where a cop asks him if he’s seen her. Roman denies it and the cop wishes him a good afternoon. Of course why should they suspect him? He doesn’t even leave his apartment and he certainly doesn’t LOOK like a killer.
In the midst of being haunted by what he did, yet another woman comes into his life, the lovely and arty Eva (Nectar Rose in her first big role). She seems to like Roman a lot and slowly garners him into a romantic relationship. Roman resists, not because he doesn’t like her, but because he can’t forgive himself for what he’s done. He starts to slowly push her away.
ROMAN is the directorial debut of two-time McKee leading lady Angela Bettis (MAY and MoH: SICK GIRL). I had a theory when AMERICAN PSYCHO came out that has been proven here: When making a movie about male obsession, one should always have a female director at the helm. Bettis handles the movie in a way that we can see she has a begrudging respect for Roman, but she doesn’t romanticize him or seem all that impressed with him. This is most evident, I think, where Roman reads a porno magazine and vividly fantasizes that the two women he’s looking at are in the apartment with him. Bettis makes this seedy and yet oddly wistful, basking the set in garish red lighting. Note that Roman doesn’t hop in for the three-way action: He just wants some company. Even the Hi-Def video it was shot on says volumes about the lead character. Surely someone of such modest means as our Mr. Roman wouldn’t ask for expensive Panavision.
The acting is strong from the three leads. McKee himself doesn’t come off as particularly forceful, but so few murderers do. He is remarkable on the strength that he is UN-remarkable. Nectar Rose strikes the flighty notes particularly well, and Bell is every bit as human yet unaccessible as all our childish crushes are. Were I to air any grievance at all about ROMAN, it is that the acting at the edges of the film ranges from merely bad to cringe-inducing. There’s one scene where Roman’s neighbors loudly speculate about the missing Girl that made me turn my nose up.
But if that’s the only complaint I can level, then this should mark it as superior. This is less a conventional horror movie, but more like a character study draped over a noir frame. Not that it goes overboard with stylish noir influences, but is a story about a man who gives in to temptation once and it shatters him forever. Think of how much we give in to temptation every day… This is not a particularly setting line of thinking.
by Royce Clemens