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74 reviews in total

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160 out of 199 people found the following review useful:
A film to be experienced, 11 March 2004

Author: marcosaguado from Los Angeles, USA

I'm in the middle of a Martin Donovan marathon. I've seen "Apartment Zero" at least once a year for the last 14 years and every time, it changes, surprises you. I can't say that about many other films, Repulsion, Odd Man Out and very few others. What makes this film unique is that it doesn't try to make it easy for you. All of the gems that it offers have to be earned. Colin Firth, is simply monumental. The faces of his performance are endless. Look at the way he smiles, as if he didn't know how to. How he walks, as if his limbs had independent life. The world the film explores is filled with trap doors if you fall into the wrong one you're going to hate the experience, like a bad trip. But if you manage to get through the right one, the pleasures are infinite.

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130 out of 143 people found the following review useful:
The Apartment Zero Experience, 11 August 2005

Author: axlgarland from London, England

This is a film I've seen more times than any other. I can quote the dialogue verbatim. I saw it first about eight years ago on video. I knew the theatrical version was six minutes longer but as I never saw the original I never missed anything, until two hours ago that is. I finally saw the full theatrical version and I'm literally, blown away. It was a new electrifying experience. There is a moment within the first ten minutes of the film in which we have Adrian (Colin Firth) in bed talking, mumbling rather, to himself. It jolted me. I know the film so well that a new scene I've never seen before arriving at a totally unexpected moment threw me for six and yet, it made sense, completely. Adrian is walking a tight rope from the beginning and those few seconds underlines it in the most elegant, chilling, beautiful way. There is more, of course, much more. Colin Firth's performance couldn't be improved but the extra moments he has on the screen not only adds to his perfection but completes the strange and mesmerising journey that the "Apartment Zero" experience is all about. Hart Bochner hits all the right notes. He teases, he invites, he offers. It is a masterclass in seduction, trying to become what Adrian wants or needs. All the other characters that populate the building are a priceless collection of Hitchcockian, Polanskian delights. I'm sure a Hollywood movie would never allow its supporting players to have so much screen time but, personally, that's one of the many things I love about this film. They all have their moment, for an instant the film is about each one them. They are all "the star" when the camera is on them. I'm now waiting anxiously for the DVD release. I'm taking for granted that the full theatrical version will be included. I know for a fact that the experience is not for everyone - very few films are - but I, as part of an enormous minority, would like to live the experience in its full length form. Thank you very much

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106 out of 123 people found the following review useful:
A Masterpiece, 20 April 2004

Author: Miles Charrier from London, England

I've never had the kind of experience that "Apartment Zero" provided me with. It left me in a daze. I've seen the film countless times since and every time I came out with something new. Last night, I showed the film to a group of people who had never seen it before. Their ages ranged from 17 years old to 41. The reaction was as divided as it was passionated. The point is, nobody could dismiss it. The film has a way to get into your system and question you. Not an easy thing for a film to do. But "Apartment Zero" does it in such an original way that you don't even know its happening. The writer/ director forces us to look into uncomfortable characters straight in the eye and find something of ourselves in there. Chilling! What it may look like a straight forward thriller is in fact a psychological, erotic, puzzle with false doors and moving walls.

Over the years "Apartment Zero" has become a point of reference to me and one of my favourite films of all time.

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87 out of 90 people found the following review useful:
Colin Firth from Argentina, 12 July 2007

Author: alvinatth from Locarno, Switzerland

Adrian LeDuc is a nut. Everyone knows that. His neighbors talk about him in a whisper. They've never been inside his apartment and their imagination takes them through the most perverse scenarios. They couldn't possibly imagine the innocence of the man or his loneliness. Colin Firth creates a character with a million different faces without ever changing his. He could be an emotional wax work. The fact that he invents an identity for himself shouldn't come as a big surprise, he doesn't have one of his own and that is abundantly clear from the first time we see him. He is in the projection booth of his movie theater looking at the screen as if he was in the peep room of a sex shop - Ironic how things are going to turn out. "Apartment Zero" is almost 20 years old but it feels ahead of its time, still. I was able to see it again in its theatrical version with those 6 minutes missing from the video release. Oh what a difference 6 minutes make. There are moments that underline Adrian's loneliness at the beginning, so powerful that the lecture of the entire film is based on the effect provoked by those chilling moments. Adrian/Colin talking to himself at night for instance. Hart Bochner (what an intriguing piece of casting) makes a star entrance that seems to come straight out of Adrian/Colin's cinematic mind. The star has arrived and everything is about to change. Everything will be destined to cater his comfort and well being. Laundry, breakfasts. The star is essential in the movie of Colin/Adrian's life. Hart Bochner - his character's name is Jack Carney, "carne" in Spanish means "meat" - realizes very soon the power he has over Adrian but he doesn't know how to use it. His own feelings (first he discovers to have feelings in a superlative piece of subtle, brilliant acting) get mangled and his frustration takes different forms. Hart intermingles with each one of the neighbors. Those moments in themselves are like short movies with their own kind feel. Suspenseful, erotic, farcical, romantic. - If you listen to Martin Donovan's (the director) commentary in the DVD he credits his actors for practically everything but there is a love there that I'm sure allowed him to get into the darkness with such assured step, fearlessly. The DVD also includes a great exchange between David Koepp and Steven Sodebergh - "Apartment Zero" is unmissable from every front.

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93 out of 105 people found the following review useful:
See You 2, 17 September 2005

Author: dboyleukgroup from United Kingdom

I'm the surviver of a couple of days "Apartment Zero" debate. I wish I had recorded the arguments. The extraordinary Colin Firth leads the way without meaning to. He himself - I mean, Adrian, Colin's character - doesn't know where he is going, in fact I suspect he doesn't even know that he is moving. The only real things in his life are the painful deterioration of his mother, financial hardship and whatever he sees on the screen of his revival theatre. I wondered how is it possible that he doesn't realises the danger. The director doesn't design a whodunit for us. He tells us, one way or another, that Jack (Hart Bochner) is too good to be true. We know it, Adrian doesn't. Until he sees it on the screen of his own theatre. He understand the danger only when it's projected on a screen. I think that's a fabulous way to tell a story. I was participating in the unveiling, unable to decide. Hoping for Adrian to open up, allowing Jack's designs to materialise even if that could mean a living hell or protecting the zeroness of his existence for ever. The face of Colin Firth when he sees the CU2 on the screen is one of the best silent screams of realisation I have ever seen. Part of the argument is that CU2 is not "See you two" but if you're a foreigner, try to pronounce CU2 and See You Two and you won't hear any difference. Adrian may speak like David Niven but he is not British. He has assumed an old British identity as a shield. The keys to open the doors of "Apartment Zero" are many and varied. You must try to find the right one, that's the thing, and you must never force the lock. Remember he CU2.

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81 out of 87 people found the following review useful:
The most neglected masterpiece of the 1990's!, 28 February 2006

Author: lovethatludo from London, England

This is the most neglected masterpiece of the 1990's! An amazing feat, both directorial (by the brilliant Martin Donovan), and with a staggering screenplay by Donovan and David Koepp (yes, that one, can you believe it?). The cast have NEVER been better. Colin Firth is utter perfection as Adrian - a truly scary, brilliant performance that he has never even come close to before or after. And, Hart Bochner, now if he had Mr. Donovan to work with again, he might be able to go beyond his devilish good looks, and delve into a character the way he does her, where he has a real director, who obviously adores him, to fall back on. Yes, the plot is complex, yet it has a clarity that makes it imminently easy to understand. Do yourself a favor - rent this, find it if you can, and intoxicate yourself in a world of mystery, intrigue and sensuality that will linger far beyond its running time, and haunt you for years to come. Thank you Mr. Donovan and all concerned for a truly mesmerizing masterpiece. And, please, do yourself and everyone else a favour, KEEP WORKING!

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94 out of 113 people found the following review useful:
Before And After Zero, 20 August 2004

Author: Donald Agustamarian from London, England

I was so shaken the first time I saw "Apartment Zero" that in my film going experiences, everything I see is somehow related to that initial overwhelming emotion. Many thought I was a suitable case for treatment, as the film takes you where, a normal human being, wouldn't like to venture. Maybe that's it, maybe there is something of Adrian in all of us, Colin Firth's masterful performance, makes that uncomfortable assumption, pretty plausible. Someone who's not at ease around other human beings, suddenly, for practical reasons, allows one into his life and becomes an addict. He cannot do without that presence without that fear without that feeling. No film ever has been able to tell us that in such a gripping, entertaining, cinematic way.

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88 out of 105 people found the following review useful:
A drama lesson, 27 July 1999

Author: catherine desgranges (catherinedesgranges@yahoo.com) from Montreal, Canada

When I first saw the movie I already knew the plot because my video's book had the bad idea to say who the murderer was. Anyway the film is so marvelously done that even if you know you still get the chills. I was really impressed with Hart Bochner performance, mostly because he has the kind of face which usually is cast in an afternoon soap opera and though his character is mostly physical, he never plays it at a first level. I'm very moved each time I see him cry. It could have been so easy to over do it, to be pathetic or melodramatic but instead he is touching and true. As for the part of Adrian, Colin Firth with his dark-low voice (that gives some more weirdness to the part- mostly because of the contrast with his childish face) is just brilliant. The irony to see him play the victim as Bochner takes over Valmont's seduction is pure amazement. Everything is in the details: every look, every attempt to smile, the way he walks, the way he talks and stutters. Adrian may seem fragile but he is a survivor. Every detail in the movie adds to the actors performances: the frightening neighbors (the way they invade his life is no surprise to his disliking them so much), the music, the camera shots of the "living" city opposed constantly to the claustrophobic dark apartment and even the apartment itself which is almost a character per se. It has its life and its secrets. For example we never actually have a full view of the two bedrooms, we know there is a kitchen but we never see it and we only see the bathroom through a glass window. The only space used in the apartment is the living room which gives to this thriller a feeling of a closed-room drama. I guess that if you are not bewitched by the actors the film won't do it for you. It's not the kind of thriller only based on action plot. The real interest of the film remains in the relation between those two different men and not in the murders themselves. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone who loves to see good and subtle acting. It's a powerful 1h45 drama lesson!

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80 out of 92 people found the following review useful:
An Apartment Of My Own, 9 September 2005

Author: ccrivelli2005 from Rome, Italy

I love to meet people who love "Apartment Zero" not necessarily as much as I do but who love it nonetheless. In Italy that's a hard thing and I kind of understand why. The dubbed Italian version is quite another movie and the video transfer is appalling. So dark you can hardly see anything. I hope the DVD puts an end to all that. The Italians don't quite get it. They much prefer Martin Donovan's first movie "State of Wonder", a movie that hardly anybody has ever seen, not even me. It is a movie impossible to find. In any case, I can't talk about "Apartment Zero" when I'm in Italy, even if the film won the Taormina Film Festival in its day. Italians tend to dismiss whatever puzzles them, I should know, I used to do the same. "Apartment Zero" presents a series of alternatives to its audience and I've had discussions about the why, where and whats of this film from people from every corner of the globe, except Italy that is. While Adrian (Colin Firth) and Jack (Hart Bochner) fight for the gun one of the two shouts "Do it!" Which one? I think it's Jack, I mean, it's obviously him, but some people think it's Adrian. At a lecture in Los Angeles, about two years ago, I asked Mr. Donovan about that point in question. He made a very dramatic pause, turn to me, smiled - I felt kind of dizzy - and turn the question back to me : "What do you think?" There I was, right were I started. Mr. Donovan explained in the most riveting way that the "Do it!" was the actor's idea and when in post production the sound editor suggested to bring the actor back to ADR the line. Donovan preferred to keep the production track as it was. He turned to me to say "Just to have the pleasure of having you, 15 years later, asking me about it" Of course, that is at the center of this fascinating film. The truth is exactly were you find it. All the different alternatives take you to one inexorable truth. Repression breathes monsters. The road you take to arrive to that conclusion is entirely yours, made of your own experiences of your own perceptions. The film treats its audience like a thinking breathing being, allowing all of us to include our vision, our colors, our shadows. That's why I consider "Apartment Zero" a film that taught me something about myself. I've been reminded it of all of it now, because we had a screening tonight at a friend's house and we argue for hours about the "Do it!" line, about Adrian and his mother about the true nature of Jack. Yes, I do love to talk to people who love "Apartment Zero" Tonight I found two of those in Italy of all places.

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72 out of 86 people found the following review useful:
Disturbing, unsettling, and you just can't get enough of it., 30 November 2005

Author: ags123 from Atlanta, Georgia

You need a well-developed taste for the bizarre to appreciate this unique movie gem. Here's a complex film that's guaranteed to get under your skin. Despite some direct references to "Psycho," "Repulsion," "Sisters" and other shockers, the film comes off as wholly original, largely due to its two vivid main characters and its smart Buenos Aires setting. The two principals represent opposite sides of one another: Adrian is uptight, uncomfortable, and unable to bear human contact until Jack arrives like a beautiful Angel of Death, charming women and men alike with his seemingly easygoing, nonjudgmental demeanor. He manages to fulfill a need in each of the apartment building's dwellers. They eagerly welcome him into their lives unaware of his capacity for evil. A wolf in sheep's clothing. The Buenos Aires locale provides a similar duality, as both a familiar urban landscape and a strange, foreign, detached environment. It's a place where covert political intrigue can go unquestioned, and where any inhabitant can lead an anonymous, rootless existence. Wonderful evocative music helps set the stage. "Apartment Zero" is a guessing game right up to the end.

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