I was confused from the beginning of "The 4th Floor" because, fool that I am, it never once occurred to me that this young woman talking with William Hurt (who is my age) was actually his girlfriend. She looked like his daughter and in fact, with the 23 year difference in their ages, could have been. Once that was out of the way, I started to concentrate.
This is a pretty scary movie if you like the genre, but it doesn't make any sense. I can understand Jane moving into her late aunt's apartment - it's New York City, after all, reasonably priced apartments are hard to come by, and she doesn't want to move in with her boyfriend. But no matter how reasonable the rent, no one would have stayed in that building. The neighbors are all totally bizarre and someone - she thinks it's her neighbor on the 4th floor -- is tormenting her. Aggressively.
There are sometimes one can put these problems in a film aside and sometimes that one can't. This would be one of the times that one can't. It really stretched all reason. If it was the type of film where one just had to suspend belief, that would have been another story, but it wasn't.
I figured the plot out long before the denouement, although the ending is ambiguous in a way. The acting was mixed. Lewis sounded like she was imitating Jennifer Elise Cox's character on Lovespring, and Hurt's role was beneath him. The supporting players were the marvelous Austin Pendleton and Shelley Duvall who gave wonderful and interesting performances.
All in all, scary stuff, good atmosphere, an okay rental.
This is a pretty scary movie if you like the genre, but it doesn't make any sense. I can understand Jane moving into her late aunt's apartment - it's New York City, after all, reasonably priced apartments are hard to come by, and she doesn't want to move in with her boyfriend. But no matter how reasonable the rent, no one would have stayed in that building. The neighbors are all totally bizarre and someone - she thinks it's her neighbor on the 4th floor -- is tormenting her. Aggressively.
There are sometimes one can put these problems in a film aside and sometimes that one can't. This would be one of the times that one can't. It really stretched all reason. If it was the type of film where one just had to suspend belief, that would have been another story, but it wasn't.
I figured the plot out long before the denouement, although the ending is ambiguous in a way. The acting was mixed. Lewis sounded like she was imitating Jennifer Elise Cox's character on Lovespring, and Hurt's role was beneath him. The supporting players were the marvelous Austin Pendleton and Shelley Duvall who gave wonderful and interesting performances.
All in all, scary stuff, good atmosphere, an okay rental.