Room for Rent Review

Room for Rent is straight forward film that follows a recluse that successfully sways his parents into renting a spare room instead of downsizing. The story follows Mitch Baldwin (Mark Little) after he blows his lottery winnings in a short time and is left to a sorrowing life of solitude. This leaves him mostly broken and left with a chain of business projects that never panned out.

In order to stop his family from moving he quickly devises the idea of having someone rent the spare room. This then introduces the odd and somewhat creepy Carl Lemay (Brett Gelman) into his life. The two have an introducing set of initial encounters and the interactions between these two generate the core of the story.

It's an interesting, almost sinister narrative at that with some dark aspects coming into play. While these were great and for the most part everything was rather intriguing, I did feel that the ending could have been a bit more. The entire movie played out along the lines of being a comedy with some aspects that could come across as almost suspense though not quite there. It definitely borders along the lines of having some crazy things coming into play, but keeps it light for the most part.

Some of the shots were really well done in this with a green hallway scene standing out to me though the framing could have been a bit better there. This was opposed by some creepy, yet not quite perfect areas such as the overly red lighted scene. The narrative was fine in Room for Rent providing a story that was interesting and had some neat twists along the way.

There were some funny moments as well as times that bordered on unsettling. It was a strange mix not directly picking genre and instead balancing between a couple. There was a good sense of growth within the lead in coming to terms with life and it was only this distinct change up that did eventually get him going. The push to get him there made sense and I liked the simple, yet clever way this was delivered.

The Conclusion

Room for Rent is a fine watch though I would have liked to see it head towards a more focused direction in its genre. There were some humorous aspects present throughout, yet it was also being somewhat dark in the mystery of what was going on.

I didn't entirely get the whole comedy vibe and perhaps pushing for that more would have been better. Still, I enjoyed watching it through while looking forward to the mysteries it presented. I wasn't a fan of the way it wrapped up however as there was potential for something a bit more out there with that part being underwhelming.

Room for Rent Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening Provided by D Films Corp

Rating Overall: 6.8