In a cinematic world full of anodyne formula movies, what's particularly good about "Room To Rent" is just how atypical it is.
It's ostensibly a story about Ali (S盲id Taghmouai), an Egyptian student trying to forge a career as a writer in England. On the way, he hooks up with a selfish, gay flatmate (Rupert Graves) and is hitched to a bizarre American girl, who looks and acts like she's Marilyn Monroe (Juliette Lewis), in a marriage of convenience.
But it doesn't end there, because as "Room To Rent" wends its merry way towards its offbeat finale, it takes in such diverse subjects as foreigners' rights and reincarnation.
Taghmouai delivers on the promise he showed as Kate Winslet's hunk in "Hideous Kinky" and as the quietly sadistic guard in "Three Kings", to deliver a fantastically watchable central performance. Hollywood agents take note. And Lewis, affecting Marilyn's childlike speech and mannerisms, pulls off the tough role of a seemingly innocent girl with plenty to hide.
A wacko tale like this could very easily not work, but through a combination of thoroughly warm-hearted characterisations and good acting writer/director Haggar has crafted an enjoyable little curio that will probably pass most people by when it deserves to be given a chance.
It's good to occasionally see a movie that baffles. "Room To Rent" is a movie like that. Very strange, but very fun.
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