Some general characteristics of a thriller movie are murder, obsession, stalking, torture and kidnapping. The movie “The Roommate” has all of these qualities, but lacks the most important feature: suspense. For this reason, it is most likely going to be one of the forgettable 2011 movies. Its acclaimed genre is thriller, although that can be objectionable as there is not much of a thrill to it.

The movie stars Minka Kelly as Sara Matthews, a girl from Des Moines who enrolled in the University of Los Angeles and now lives with her new roommate, Rebecca Evans, played Leighton Meester of “Gossip Girl.” Other familiar faces in the movie are those of Sara’s boyfriend Steven, played by Cam Gigandet who also played Micah in the 2010 film “Easy A” and Professor Roberts, played by Billy Zane who is most known as Cal Hockely in “Titanic.”

Sara’s background consists of big dreams in the fashion industry and a broken heart from her ex-boyfriend Jason, while Rebecca comes from a past of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, although the viewer doesn’t find that out until later. This isn’t the first time a thriller movie’s antagonist turns out to have some type of psychological disorder, just think of the 1999 classic “The Talented Mr. Ripley” or the 2009 film “Orphan.”

It would have been better to see a little diversity in the characters, as every single one of them was Caucasian. The most diversity it had was making one of the characters homosexual and including a few girl-on-girl action scenes. Although the characters played their parts well, the acting alone could not support the whole structure of the film.

There are a few scenes that make a desperate attempt to frighten the viewer, such as the murder of an adorable little kitten. However, that scene just seemed a lot more distasteful than it was scary. The ending could not be more predictable for this movie and left the viewer with nothing more to think about other than why on earth they chose to see the movie in the first place.

Grade: C-