Roman (2006)

Too much of everything

Simply Perfect

Absolutely the worst movie.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Lucky McKee and Angela Bettis delivered one of the finest, most moving, and startling horror films of the early 21st century when they first collaborated on the remarkable "May." McKee and Bettis get back together for this equally striking and unusual affair, this time with McKee as the star and Bettis handling the directorial duties. The results are every bit as strange, moody, and surprising as one would expect. Lonesome and reclusive social misfit Roman (a subtle and convincing performance by McKee, who also wrote the highly idiosyncratic script) pines for a lovely young lady (a brief, but charming and memorable turn by the comely Kristen Bell) who lives in the same drab apartment complex. Roman befriends the object of his desire, but alas accidentally kills her. He decides to store her body in the bathtub and keeps it preserved with ice. Matters get complicated when flaky nonconformist free spirit Eva (delightfully played by the perky and adorable Nectar Rose) enters Roman's life and falls in love with him. McKee and Bettis expertly craft a strangely haunting and poignant character study of a fascinating maladjusted sadsack guy which also works as a very morbid and peculiar, yet thoughtful and provocative meditation on love, death, alienation, the basic human need for companionship, and the insanity of loneliness. Moreover, McKee and Bettis firmly ground the whole thing in an utterly plausible pedestrian reality which adds substantially to the movie's overall effectiveness. McKee and Rose do outstanding work in the lead roles. Kevin Ford's crisp cinematography offers a wondrous wealth of stunningly beautiful visuals. Jaye Barnes Luckett's brooding score likewise hits the harmonic spot. The surprise downbeat ending packs a powerful emotional wallop to the gut. Although the film gets bogged down a bit in overly slow pacing and suffers from a few pretentious stylistic flourishes, it nonetheless has a weirdly timeless quality and quirky appeal that's uniquely its own. Those expecting a standard ooga-booga jump-out-at-you horror shockfest will be disappointed and frustrated in equal measure; folks with a taste for something different and out of the ordinary should really dig this supremely oddball picture. Recommended.

Though an uneven effort, this flick is a dark, quirky gem-in-the-rough, not unlike the agates that don't look like much when you pick them up at Little Girl's Point, but turn out rather stunning after a week in the tumbler. In order to have ANY memory of this film after seeing it, one must skip the crappy extras on the DVD or the last remnant of good feeling toward the feature likely will be canceled out. The patronizing and absurdly repetitious cast & crew interviews last an endless 24 minutes, consisting of these people donning cheap Groucho masks (a gambit that's old in 24 seconds!) and asking each other the same sophomoric handful of questions over and over and over again. The only interesting tidbit to emerge here is that Lucky McKee wrote the first draft of the script in three days when he was a college student. "Alternate cast outtakes" is not much better. These 13 minutes are divided almost equally between two other actors (besides McKee) in the title role of Roman; they both suck. The earlier 2002 aborted effort with Kevin Ford is the more interesting (and, unfortunately, the second presented)--mostly because of background music and a nude chick, neither of which are present in the final 2006 version. It's best to just skip these miserable add-ons, in order to leave the mundane Pirandelloism of the feature's final frames unsullied in the mind's eye. Reinforcing the parting images is Kara and Boyd Jacobson's rendition of the haunting lost youth ditty "I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard" over the closing credits, which strongly invites an allegorical interpretation of this whole effort. Like the ephemeral playmates in this bittersweet tune, is it not possible that both "Isis" and Eva are figments of Roman's imagination; competing dream girls on par with Roman's two-minute fantasy about a flowery Earth mother and the alternate FLASHDANCE-styled welder that sets the tone for the movie six minutes in? Throughout the film, Roman is totally inarticulate with his coworkers, his landlord, and his neighbors. Yet he is philosophically verbose with the two ladies. Perhaps he is so taciturn with real people because his interior dialogs drown them out. No doubt the inspiration for this script was the Nineteenth Century Georg Buchner play WOYZECK, which I had to read at the same age McKee was when he wrote this script. An army doctor forces Mr. Woyzeck onto an all-pea diet, which soon causes him to flip out and kill his wife. In McKee's movie, a girl (real or not) entices Roman onto an all-pork & beans diet (cases of the stuff are the main furnishing of his efficiency), with similar murderous results (real or not). Maybe it's time to check on the safety of Morgan Spurlock's significant other, given his all-McDonald's diet?

A few years ago,I saw a real masterpiece called May.In 2002,that movie showed director Lucky McKee as one of the most original and fresh new voices of contemporary horror.But,his following works were not what the people expected from him with May.The Woods was not a bad film but it was miles away from May and his episode in Masters of Horror was very mediocre.Now comes Roman,written and starred by McKee and directed by Angela Bettis,the main actress from May.The result is not as good as May,but the film is a pretty interesting experiment.The story of Roman is a little similar to May but there's a difference;in May,the main character stays away from people,looking for refuge on her sick mind;in Roman,the main character tries to stop being shy.The film gets a disturbing tone on some simple scenes.Also,the movie has a good level of surrealism(like the scene Roman goes picnic).McKee's screenplay and Bettis' direction show some typical things from cinema students like excessive pretension and artistic ambition.The performances are really good.McKee shows potential as an actor because his work is quite solid.Kristen Bell and Nectar Rose bring competent works.In spite of being pretentious,a little predictable and not too original,Roman is an interesting experiment.

First off I want to say I can't believe all the people criticizing this movie for the bad picture quality and type of camera used.I think it helped to give it more realism and it may have been done for a reason.Or it could be because it's a low budget film and they had no choice.It kind of came off as an experimental or student film.The only thing I didn't like was an annoying noise during the the live sound not being edited out. The noise in the background sounded like a cat meowing throughout a lot of the movie.It was distracting and even one of my cats got up and kept looking around the room. Lucky McKee who wrote and starred in this film did a nice convincing performance of a lonely, isolated and disturbed man.There was a scene while he was being ridiculed at work and the topic of masturbation came up and I burst out in laughter.I found the scenes with Roman and his co-workers on their lunch break extremely comical and well portrayed,I mean that kind of sh*t happens! Roman has his dull daily routine and seems to lead a meaningless life.He eats nothing but pork and beans and sits by his window looking out it drinking beer. It would have been nice to understand how he loses his grip of reality.It would be nice to see the events that led up to it, but everyone involved in this project was having too much fun making it and not caring what direction it took.I like these kinds of weird,twisted films now and then.I liked Isis(the girl) played by Kristen Bell.She was so friendly, naive and sweet but Unfortunately her encounter with Roman ended tragically. And then there is Eva(played by Nectar Rose).At first I thought Eva was the sister of Isis out to avenge her sister's death because the cop that visited the building mentioned the missing girl's sister was looking for her.And also she was also trying to get inside an apartment by involving Roman going to the landlord.But then by the end of the movie I wasn't sure if she even existed at all and thought she was Roman's imaginary girlfriend.I didn't understand the ending and found parts of the movie confusing.Roman became a bigger nut case and found Eva's death amusing. I can see how some people may find this movie confusing, dull,morbid, or boring and strange.You have to like black comedies,off-beat thriller's,or appreciate different type of films.I liked some of the deleted scenes especially the alternative Roman dream sequence and think it should have been in the film.It was a very entertaining sequence and i'm not sure why it wasn't used.Whether or not the people involved with making this movie took it seriously or not,I still enjoyed it.It started off slow but kept my interest.