Alicia I love this movie so much

Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Jody V I watched and watched and kept thinking 'i'll give it ten more minutes'. The film is obviously low budget, (maybe more financial interest may have hurried it along a bit). The lead actor is great, he plays the role great, definitely the type of guy you'd avoid. However,he sits in his apartment, and he sits, and he sits, and he sits, and he goes to work, and then home, and then work and then home....get the point. There are people out there like that, and the story line is menacing, but for heavens sake... hurry it along a bit. Surely in the pre-release stage, someone must have started fidgeting in the first ten minutes and said to the producer, 'shall we go back and tweak it to make it more interesting?' I can only assume that the response was...'too late the money's ran out' Enough said, go shopping instead!

Argemaluco A few years ago,I saw a real masterpiece called May.In 2002,that movie showed director Lucky McKee as one of the most original and fresh new voices of contemporary horror.But,his following works were not what the people expected from him with May.The Woods was not a bad film but it was miles away from May and his episode in Masters of Horror was very mediocre.Now comes Roman,written and starred by McKee and directed by Angela Bettis,the main actress from May.The result is not as good as May,but the film is a pretty interesting experiment.The story of Roman is a little similar to May but there's a difference;in May,the main character stays away from people,looking for refuge on her sick mind;in Roman,the main character tries to stop being shy.The film gets a disturbing tone on some simple scenes.Also,the movie has a good level of surrealism(like the scene Roman goes picnic).McKee's screenplay and Bettis' direction show some typical things from cinema students like excessive pretension and artistic ambition.The performances are really good.McKee shows potential as an actor because his work is quite solid.Kristen Bell and Nectar Rose bring competent works.In spite of being pretentious,a little predictable and not too original,Roman is an interesting experiment.

Scarecrow-88 Roman(Lucky McKee)is a welder who lives a pretty monotonous existence while he obsesses after work over a young, beautiful woman(Kristen Bell, her name is never mentioned, but Roman calls her Isis)who walks nearby his apartment everyday. He fantasizes about her and can not stop thinking about this woman. A chance meeting between the two has possibilities of romance. She is quite a charmer, with this radiant glow and unflappability which works awkwardly opposite the aloof, slumbering quiet of Roman. What comes out is mostly compliments because he can not help staring endlessly into her face, waxing poetic in his heart for her. She stops by his apartment at his request and Roman handles her leaving badly because the idea of exiting from his sight at this point in time seems too much a burden to bear. But, in wrestling "Isis" to the ground, he accidentally strangles her. With options limited, Roman places her body on ice in his bathroom. Then, the film at times almost forgets about her. A new woman enters the picture, Eva(the truly wonderful Nectar Rose, who is a revelation in this part)..a sexual dynamo obsessed with death and conversations about it. Death is the topic that plays the heavy part over the story. It's everywhere and Roman can not seem to escape it. Roman, every Sunday, extracts a major body part(arm one Sunday, leg the next week)of the girl and spends a day with it at a lake off the beaten path in a secluded spot where the possibilities of being caught is almost nil. He spends his time with each part as if it was Isis right there with him slurping a beer like the first time they ever met on the apartment rooftop. Isis is his girl on this day, while Eva slowly becomes the other vital part of his life during the rest of the time. She's unusual, a little weird, but has an air of spontaneity..this encapsulating aura that pulls you in her orbit. Through her spirit, we see bits of humanity slowly emerge. The woebegone nature we were seeing at the opening is changing as he awakens from his emotional purgatory. But, Eva's strong feelings about death, talking about and discussing it, analyzing why people are sore afraid of it makes him very uncomfortable. Obviously, the topic of death is something Roman would truly care about avoiding, but Eva is persistent that he get with the program and not turn away from it. Being close-minded is something she can not tolerate.The keys to this film I believe are the main emotional punches to the gut of the title character, Roman. Two women impact his life..and their lives end in tragedy. One didn't wish to die and another embraced it without backing away. The film comes to a head when Eva completes her artistic project allowing Roman to feast his eyes on the results. They impact him in ways he would never imagine.

infomage Roman would have made an excellent short film, if it was made outside of Hollywood, by people who knew nothing about film. Oh, wait, did I say film? I meant video. Strangely there is no attempt to escape the camcorder look and scratchy open mic sound. The compression on the incidental sound effects (cars passing, doors closing, etc.) has such an irritating level of attack... I mean... yuck. The lack of attention to technical details is just atrocious. The lighting is two-dimensional, the blocking is repetitive and is all angled either too low or too high.In the sense of story, there is potential. You don't, unfortunately, get the sense that Roman is time bomb where 'the girl' is concerned, which is unfortunate. His big mistake with the girl really has no rhyme or reason. I mean this was shot on video folks, what was stopping you from getting enough takes to reach an appropriate level of intensity. Even Kristin Bell was operating well below her A-Game in this pivotal scene.