This film had all the ingredients of a very bad and predictable "Woman being terrorized in her apartment" thriller but I have to admit, its really not that bad. Story is about a young woman who moves into her late aunts apartment but her boyfriend wants her to move in with him. Juliette Lewis plays Jane Emelin and William Hurt is the weatherman Greg Harrison who is dating her. Jane moves in and meets all the strange tenants like Shelley Duvall who is the resident snoop. Austin Pendleton is always running up the stairs in a long coat to try and avoid Duvall and Artie Lange is the Super who lives in the basement. Once she is in her apartment she watches the tenants in the other building (Like "Rear Window") and thinks she might have witnessed the locksmith murdering his wife. The neighbor below Jane keeps banging on her floor and leaving notes telling her to keep the noise down and gives her instructions on when she can make noise. Jane bangs on their door and replies to the notes but no one answers the door. Soon Jane has maggots coming up out of her drain and is plagued by mice! This little film is directed by Josh Klausner who has worked primarily with the Farrelly brothers. Its his first job as the main director and he does a pretty adequate job. Its not fancy but he seems to know exactly what he's doing. Klausner also wrote the script and its not predictable (For the most part) and as I watched this film I have to be honest and say I really didn't know what was going to happen next. You watch each strange character and its hard to guess who is doing what. *****SPOILER ALERT***** The one aspect of the film that didn't surprise me was the fact that the character by Pendleton is behind everything. He came across as the only normal guy so of course he's behind it all. But wait! He's not the only one behind it and the last shot of the painting with Pendleton and Hurt together is one that I did not expect. At the beginning of the film I suspected Hurt but then I figured it was someone else. This is one of the few times that Lewis has actually played a normal role. She carries the film well but why would she be dating a dullard like Hurt? And after all the maggots why didn't she call the health commission? Isn't it the job of the exterminators to report things like that? This is just nit-picking because the film does keep you guessing and its not a bad overall thriller.
Review of The 4th Floor
