Set in Buenos Aires in 1988, "Apartment Zero" tells the tale of Adrian DeLuc (Colin Firth), a paranoid, alienating Englishman obsessed with movies (he even runs a lowly-attended film club), and whose mother is in the latter stages of crippling dementia. Enter Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), an ingratiating, dark, and handsome stranger whom Adrian takes in as a roommate. That Adrian is neurotic and timid (he purposely avoids his nosy neighbors) and Jack is charming and helpful (impressing said neighbors by rescuing a cat on a ledge) foments an atmosphere of unease that deliberately unravels over the course of the film. Some may find "Apartment Zero" comparable to the works of Hitchcock, but for my tastes, it's more in step with Roman Polanski's masterpiece, "The Tenant" (1976)--the character of DeLuc plays very similarly to Trelkovsky (Polanski), but the addition of a political and implied homosexual subtext very much makes this a film of the times. Director Martin Donovan and co-writer David Koepp keep "Apartment Zero" moving along at a rapid clip, and for the most part, adhere to the "less is more" mentality that lends classical thrillers their impact: by avoiding explicit violence, the character-study elements at work become that much bolder. While "Apartment Zero" is a fine thriller, I found the requisite Nosy Neighbors an unnecessary drag on the narrative--their presence mostly serving the more mechanical turns of the plot (i.e.--Jack's mingling leads to their further distrust of Adrian) and delivering comic relief that has been done to death in other films of this type.
Review of Apartment Zero
