April Showers: "Single White Female"

waterworks each weeknight at 11 in April

Have you ever had a flatmate you just didn't trust? Bridget Fonda as "Allie" thought she'd found a good one in Jennifer Jason Leigh "Hedy" after placing an ad in Single White Female (1992). But once JJL moved in, things got so weird. Any of us could've told Bridget that'd happen since JJL is rarely "right" in the head onscreen, yknow? So Hedy gets weirdly needy and steals Allie's whole look, complete with ginger helmet bob! So Bridget, who is pretty damn stupid even as thriller heroines still has enough functioning brain cells to know a good snooping opportunity when she hears one.

I'm going to take a shower."

Now's your chance, Fonda. 3...2...1... SNOOP, BRIDGET, SNOOP!!!

Oh, don't pretend like you haven't snooped on a roommate before! The Film Experience is a safe space. You can say. Show of hands? I thought so. And, besides, all ethical bets are off once someone starts stealing your identity, right?

At first Allie seems like she understands the danger she's in as she does a little stealth jog to JJL's room where she discovers a box of personal things in the closet. All people, crazy or otherwise, keep shoeboxes filled with secrets in their closets. Known Fact. What she finds in this shoebox is those very secrets as well as proof that Hedy has been intercepting her boyfriend's mail. That Bitch!

Single White Female was shot by Italian cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. It's beautiful.

Oh and Allie, get the hell out of there. That bitch who steals your mail also takes really short showers.

More after the jump. NSFW

So. Allie slips out to see her neighbor upstairs. Break for several exciting (i.e. escalatingly creepy) plot points some of which include said neighbor upstairs, who is Mandatory Gay Neighbor/Confidante, a staple of 90s cinema. (You don't see this role quite as much anymore as it's been broken up until several subsidiary characters including Gay Couple Next Door and Already Married/DeSexed John Krasinski: A Friend To Girls.

Lots of weird things happen after this shower but the weirdest might be that once Hedy and Allie both return home after a particularly eventful night Hedy jumps right back in the shower. By this point Allie has worked up enough nerve to talk to her about the boyfriend but Hedy just won't come out. So Allie goes in.

Allie: Hedy are you all right?
Hedy: I can't hear you.
Allie: It's okay. It's just that I was just starting to worry. You've been in here so long. I'll make you some tea. You want some tea? Chamomile

Bridge delivers that tea line expertly. It's sweet but there's this flash of 'god i'm so fucking annoyed with you right now. why me?' tetchiness to it. Really well handled. But, alas, her performance in this movie is very inconsistant... as is the "Allie" character.

Hedy: Yeah. That'd be great. I'm not feeling so well.

One of the most interesting things about Single White Female is its sapphic indecisiveness. Both Hedy and Allie seem to be heterosexual characters in their actions but Hedy's whole I Want To Be You | I Am You | We Are Inseparable vibe gets very queer as it were. Or at least Evil Queer which is a problem in the movies but has still gifted the cinema with some great characters over the years.

My favorite part of this shower scene is that Allie's refusal to look at Hedy's naked body -- she's uncomfortable the whole movie with Hedy's sexuality which she obviously reads as "other" -- actually forces her eyes to something she needs to see.

Hedy: Mine always comes when I'm wearing something nice.

There's a beat here when you hope that Allie gets it, finally, in the way the audience has for at least half the movie. But she loses brain cells again and returns to her "tea" business.

Oh Allie. That ain't Hedy's blood, girl. Must we repeat: Get the hell out of there!

Comments

[MARK]

I always loved the way she refuses to look at jjl nudeness,i thought they were great for this type of film,i would have nominated rebecca demorany for a 1992 best actress award though for the hand that rocks the cradle she was even better in that movie.

[NATHANIEL R]

i've never liked "the hand that rocks..." though I do think it's fun to see Julianne Moore in such an early role.

Single White Female's main hairdo cracks me up though. JJL keeps saying "i love myself like this" but i don't think it's at all flattering on her.