If Neil Simon had collaborated with David Lynch when writing 'The Odd Couple' the result might have been something very similar to this morbid satire, in which a fussy, repressed film buff living in Buenos Aires invites into his home a mysterious, handsome new roommate who possesses the uncanny ability to be all things to all people. His dirty secret isn't difficult to guess (there's a good reason why the film is set in Argentina), but director/co-writer Martin Donovan builds a claustrophobic mood of menace and paranoia before allowing the delicate balance of ambiguity to collapse in the last act, when the elusive plot devolves into just another violent psychodrama. It might be argued that the entire movie is little more than a pointless flirtation, but the initial set-up, so perverse and intriguing, is almost worth the frustration of the final reel.
Review of Apartment Zero
