User Reviews

Hi, fellows. It´s great to read positive reviews on such peculiar film from the eighties. I watched it at the time on a video tape rented at a friend´s shop in La Lucila. She was smart to tip me as to our extremely local setting. Because, apart from all the achievements mentioned by other users, to me the moving thing about this moving picture is that the York has operated as a true cinema theatre for well over half a century in Olivos, next to a small lush square by the unfrequented Borges train station. Where us kids from the neighbourhood would go walking sunshine or rain to watch three films in a row. When my elder brothers first took me there, the way to the toilets was around a hen coop. Later in the seventies friendly ushers would let us pass to watch restricted films. To mention but a few films I saw there: The Wizard of Oz, You Only Live Twice, Cabaret, Julia, Yellow Submarine, Isadora. After staying closed for years following the theft of their projector in the eighties, in recent years the smallish York cinema house is owned and run by the Municipalidad de Vicente López and offers all films and live shows gratis.

I saw this movie 25 years ago and liked it. I learned the movie trivia game that they play throughout the film and have played it myself many times over the years. This is a very good movie. What it tells the viewer is that there are many sides to each person. We are all multifaceted and can't be defined by a single characteristic. This is so different than current films that seem to instantly define characters. " He's gay, she's black, they are violent etc." It's probably my favorite performance by Firth. Bochner is also excellent and watching it again made me wonder why he never had a bigger movie career. All of the tools were there. It's definitely worth a look see. Highly recommended.

I had a strange memory of this film. Unsettling. Frightening. Every so often I meet someone who's a devotee of Apartment Zero and I kept meaning to see it again. Well, last night, it happened. It took me completely by surprise. Clearly the first time I saw it I hadn't venture "into" the apartment. This time I did. Colin Firth is, is, I can't find the words. He creates a character I've never seen before in a movie. The sort of character you keep at arms length. Too creepy and gloomy but before you know it, you're with him, you feel for him, you start to recognize him until you say, wow, that's me. Hart Bochner is pure perfection as the catalyst with the mask. The characters in the building, the Greek chorus, are a xenophobe's nightmare. Elegant, brittle, hilarious and yes, terrifying at times but look at it. Where is the terror coming from? It points in one direction but you go there on your own. Oh yes. This Zero is a Ten.

'Apartment Zero' caused big ripples in the U.S. film industry when it appeared in 1988 at the Sundance Festival. It's an intriguing story but seems to lose its course about halfway through. It's basically a political thriller with excellent characters who, in the end, are wasted as a result of confusing psychology. It would have made more sense for Jack, the gorgeous Hart Bochner, to have become Adrian's (Colin Firth) lover and therefore provided himself with an excellent cover for his covert operations in Buenos Aires, where the film is set. Jack goes off and sleeps with another man (perhaps several) but chooses to lead poor Adrian, who is in love with him, a merry and sad dance that eventually drives him into madness.

Such as it is 'Apartment Zero' is a creepy film and succeeds in creating a dangerous atmosphere that keeps the viewer's attention riveted on what will happen next.

Colin Firth is superb, one of his best performances of many on the screen. He is very likable and sympathetic and one roots for him in his attempts to get into Jack's pants. The scenes between Adrian and his insane mother are shattering. There is a particularly disturbing scene while he visits her in the asylum that remains glued to the memory banks. She obsessively applies lipstick while he tries to explain to her about his new room-mate. She is too far-gone to know what he is saying, let alone know WHO he is. It's deeply moving and upsetting for those of us who've had a parent become demented.

The characters in the apartment building are vivid and funny, and also mind-bending in a Fellini-esque way. Liz Smith is monumentally off-the-wall funny as the drunken ex- patriot living with her equally bonkers sister, both lost in their past memories of "the way it was".

The ending is shocking and works up to a point. The role reversal implied in the last scene works, surprisingly, and I think a real master of suspense, like Hitchcock, might have also been brave enough to attempt it. Kudos for Donovon for having the courage to do it.

It's a sad movie but worth looking at for the wonderful shots of Buenos Aires and the flesh and blood characters that are so easily brought to life by an excellent cast. The music is wonderful and Adrian's apartment (Zero) is a fascinating setting.

Not a great film but very good none-the-less.

I knew about "Apartment Zero" but I had never seen it even though I thought I had. Someone said "Single White Female" was its remake. What? Not even close. "Apartment Zero" is an original in every possible way. I certainly never seen a movie like it and I don't remember when was the last time I was so unnerved, enthralled and surprised by a movie. Colin Firth is astonishing, 28 years ago! The character is impossible to love and yet you do, love him. At least, you care and fear for him. There are entire sequences that made me hold my breath, literally. Invaded by a sense of impending doom without being able to identify its source. Now I can tell you, the source was from within me. Colin Firth's craving for company is as piercing as it is uncomfortable. Not too distant from Shelley Winters in "Lolita" but more British, kind of buried underneath. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I saw it 48 hours ago. I can't wait to see it again.

"Set in Buenos Aires, Adrian LeDuc is a lonely sociopath, forced to rent his insane mother's room to Jack Carney. Carney appears normal at first, but as their friendship develops, Adrian suspects that Jack may be the government mercenary turned serial killer who has been terrorizing the city. The shocking climax of this tale of deceit, perversion, and murder reveals the darker side of the human psyche," according to the DVD presentation of "The Original Theatrical Version" (restoring trims).

An influential film (to those who've seen it), "Apartment Zero" is well worth knocking up.

Director Martin Donovan, with assistance from David Koepp, create an "Odd Couple" in desperate need of psychiatric care. Reclusive and closeted Colin Firth (as Adrian) is fixated on both his ailing mother, and Hollywood movie stars, like Montgomery Clift. Financially strapped, Mr. Firth decides to rent a room in his apartment to sexy and mysterious Hart Bochner (as Jack). For two hours, the tension between the two men mounts, and you're never really sure who is going to come out on top.

******* Apartment Zero (9/30/88) Martin Donovan ~ Colin Firth, Hart Bochner, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Mirella D'Angelo

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.

I've never seen a character like Colin Firth's Adrian in any movie, before or since. It reminded me however of some people I know, including me. Colin Firth gives him life without trying to win friends. He is so tightly screwed that there's no room for anything in his life other than old movies, the kind that let you escape to, sometimes, darker pastures. "Touch Of Evil" is playing at his deserted revival theater in Buenos Aires when the film opens. We see Colin's face watching and the voice of Marlene Dietrich "He was some kind of a man". I had seen "Apartment Zero" many years ago and I remembered the impact, I went home and couldn't fall asleep. The faces of Colin Firth and Hart Bochner keeping me awake. I never saw the film again until last night. I remembered entire sequences, music and faces. It was strange to see it again after a lifetime of personal experiences. I laughed out loud, I wept, I was terrified. My only qualm was the length. I got impatient sometimes waiting for those moments that I knew, were about to come. Now I own it and I know I'll come back to it again and again. Highly recommended.

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.

It's surprising how critically acclaimed this mess of a movie actually was. Maybe Colin Firth added some class to the proceedings, but this movie is a laughable farce. It never quite finds a focus, meandering from black comedy to psychological thriller, with less-than-subtle references to much better films, such as Polanski's "The Tenant," and Hitchcock's "Psycho" (look for the "mother" character) and "The Trouble with Harry." The directing is horrible, with unmotivated character blocking and camera-work (i.e. panning back and forth from one character to the other multiple times during the same take). The plot never goes anywhere, and when the characters are fully revealed to the audience, no-one really cares. The attempts at black comedy border on offensive, contrasting the film's serious moments. The performances are outright vile, with Hart Bochner playing the over-the-top homosexual "villain." It's no wonder his career went nowhere. Ultimately, I put the blame on Uber-hack David Koepp, who co-wrote and co-produced this disaster. Pass over this one at the video store. I actually studied this film as an example of bad film-making in a university film course.

Two empty souls meet, live together, and ultimately face off in this unique psychological thriller.

Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth) is captivated by his new apartment mate Jack Carney (Hart Bochner), who seems perfect. He's charming, charismatic, and understanding. So much so that nearly every tenant in the building is soon under his spell.

Yet, there's just something not quite right about Mr. Carney. Something dark and perhaps dangerous. Solving the mystery behind this man will prove to be the single biggest challenge of Adrian's life. That is, if he survives.

APARTMENT ZERO is a wonderfully quirky, somewhat twisted tale about skewed perceptions, sociopathy, and murder.

Definitely recommended for those seeking out the unusual...

****SPOILERS**** Senseless film that gets more confusing as it moves along to it's ending that instead of giving the audience some clarity and logic to what it saw up to then it muddles the story even more. "Apartment Zero" should have aptly been named "Roommates from Hell" with the movie centering around two oddballs playing all kinds of crazy games with each other. The first Adrian, Colin Firth, an Englishman living with his mother in Buenos Aires and second Jack, Hart Bochner, an American working for some communication firm in the Argentine capital. Adrian and Jack are so different to each other in their interests and relationships as well as their conception of right and wrong as Mother Theresa is to Atilla the Hun.

Adrian runs a movie theater and rooming house and the theater seems to be losing money but you never see him have any financial troubles running it during the entire film. You get the impression that Adrian is independently wealthy and just does that, the running of the theater at least, as a hobby. As we soon find out Adrian is a very big movie buff especially in those black & white movies of the 1930's 40's and 50's.

With Adrian's dying mother sent to a nursing home he put up her apartment for rent and one of the people looking to rent it is a good-looking charming and what seems like a very nice person Jack who's from the USA working in Buenos Aires. Struck by Jack's charm and good-looks as well as wanting to have someone to take his mothers place, as someone to talk and confide to his most intimate feelings, Adrian not only takes Jack in but, to Jack's complete surprise, offers to cook breakfast for him every morning and even do his laundry for no extra charge.

The movie goes on for over a half hour giving you the impression that Adrian and Jack were gay lovers with Jack using and playing around with Adrian's nerves by needling him about going out with girls and getting drunk. On one occasion Jack even leaves him, only to have Adrian beg him to come back, just to see how far he can go to break Adrian down emotionally. I think that Adrian just wanted someone to fill the void that his mother, who later died, left in his life and there was nothing sexual at all in Adrian's longing for Jack's company even though Jack seemed to mistake Adrian's feeling for him and think that he was madly in love with him.

Then just when you think that you finally got what was going on in the movie the truth comes out about Jack and it's all bad news. A friend of Adrian's Claudia, Fransesca d'Aloja, asks him if she could use his theater, and Adrian lets her, for a political forum about a series of murders and kidnappings in Argentina that they, in the forum, feel is connected to the government using death squads to stamp out political opposition.

Looking at a number of films and photos on the screen we see Jack involved in these atrocities and it turns out that Jack is not Jack but an American mercenary named Michael Weller who was reported killed some time ago in Argentina. Instead of concentrating in on this story the movie go back to it's confusing narrative with Jack and Adrian living and acting like the odd couple and later when it had Jack trying to leave the country his passport was found to be invalid. We then see Jack casually pick up some male hustler, at the airport, and murder him in his hotel room in order to steal his identity and leave Argentina as well as Adrian.

Jack then goes back back to Adrian's apartment where he finds Claudia looking for him, that's Adrian not Jack, only to murder her even though she didn't at all recognize him at all as the very dangerous Michael Weller, paid America killer, and thus trowing more attention on himself then there already was! which was none at all since Jack was reported to be dead and no one was looking for him in the first place.

The ending of the movie "Apartment Zero" was somewhat like the ending of the movie "Psycho", with Adrian acting and looking almost unrecognizable but unlike the Hitchcock horror classic this ending made absolutely no sense at! Your left wondering when it was all over if you just saw a very bad movie or woke up from an strange but horrific drug or alcohol induced nightmare!

Colin Firth has been one of the most renowned actors in the 21st century, so it may be a surprise that one of his early roles was in this suspense thriller. Martin Donovan's "Apartment Zero" casts him as an asocial theater owner in Buenos Aires who rents an apartment to a traveler (Hart Bochner), but things aren't what they seem.

Since this was the late '80s, the military junta and the Falklands War were still fresh in the Argentinians' memory. In one scene, someone shouts the Falklands' Spanish name at Firth's character, recognizing him as an Englishman. What a setting for a story of a mysterious tenant!

But anyway, the apartment's eerie location and the assortment of people who live in the building make this one pulse-pounding movie. Not the greatest movie ever, but worth seeing.

It was 23 years ago when I saw "Apartment Zero" for the first time. It terrified me then and it fascinated me. It also made me want to be an actor. That long before I discovered I didn't have any talent for it, but, it made me love movies. That intimacy that can be created between two characters is something I long for in a movie. Difficult to find now with all this loud super productions with things at its center instead of people. Last night I saw again "Apartment Zero" after so many years and it hasn't left my mind for a minute. What's with this movie? It gets under your skin and hints a something, something so private that it's even difficult to discuss it with people without revealing something about yourself. Colin Firth, now an Academy Award winner, was, then, already a sensational actor. His performance is so fastidiously detailed that I found new things this time. His longing is visible as well as his discomfort. Hart Bochner is terrific as a sort of chameleon becoming what his neighbor or victim needs him to be. A strange parallel because he doesn't seem to have a defined personality of his own. He's just anybody or everybody and nobody at the same time. The rest of the cast is an incredible collection of characters. Loved Fabrizio Bentivoglio as the neighbor with an emotional skeleton in his closet or the British spinsters out of an early Hitchcock film. I have never written a film review but I felt like talking about "Apartment Zero" and here I am, talking. Thank you for listening.

This review should start with a confession. I discarded Apartment Zero the first time I saw it, as an artsy-fartsy piece of slow nonsense. But I kept hearing about it over the years, about Colin Firth and Hart Bochner's performance, people quoted lines from the film and I, still loyal to my first impression, kept saying meh. I spent last weekend with some old friends I hadn't seen in years. The subject of Colin Firth came out and that lead to Apartment Zero and to an argument that ended in a challenge. My friends have an HD 70" LED TV and of course a DVD of Apartment Zero, the theatrical version with special features. I took the challenge and I sat through it. Well okay, I may have been too young when I first saw it because what I saw last Saturday night was totally new to me and it blew my mind! Yes it blew my mind. Even the slow start has that ominous sense of dread that grabs you and doesn't let you go. Looking at Colin Firth as Adrian, years after Pride and Prejudice and A Single Man is quite something in itself. He was then already a genius actor but, perhaps, unaware of it. There are details in the performance that are mesmerizing, so vivid so intimate. The real story of Adrian is all in Colin Firth's eyes. That throbbing heart buried somewhere deep, deep inside the man. And then, Hart Bochner and his performance is as in tune with Colin Firth as Abbot's was with Costello's. Spectacular, painful, funny. The rest of the cast is a Pandora's Box of hinted characters, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Miguel Ligero,Dora Bryan, Liz Smith, artists from all over the globe are the tenants of the building and identity is the theme. Of course I was too young when I first saw Apartment Zero. The score, a phenomenal mix of love, fear and tango. I intend to order it as I intend to watch Apartment Zero again, very soon. And a big lesson learned, now I'm going to watch Philippe de Brocca's King Of Hearts, another film I didn't care for the first time I saw it, but my friends seem to love. I let you know. Thank you Paul and Sarah PS: I've just found out that the director Martin Donovan was assistant to Luchino Visconti. That may explain a lot of things and how is it I didn't know that? Visconti is my hero.

There is an Apt. complex in Argentina, all the inhabitants are aware of each other, and everything is calm...until HE arrives. Colin Firth is leading this cast in predictably twisted independent film about lies and deceit, maybe even a little romance, depending on how you look at it. Bochner plays his "Hart" out as the dark stranger we all know to be the opposite of who he says. The two strike up a friendship beyond what we know as two normal guys hitting the town. Soon, questions arise, things begin to happen, and secrets are revealed! Yes, this one makes a mess in the last hour, going through all the normal kinks of a suspense genre. Firth and Bochner have great chemistry, and some of the story-telling isn't half bad, but the flick goes for such a raunchy ending, you can't really digest the final moment. Strangely enough, this little indie has a cult following about 15 years after its release. A pre-Fight Club, Apartment Zero is an attention getter, but nothing more beyond that...

Apartment Zero is an independent film of the 1980's, we're in 2017 and its power is still intact. It felt like a true original then, it feels just as original today. It as a film to get lost into and you do, at your own peril. Funny, terrifying, mysterious, sensual and elegant, elegant in a totally unselfconscious way. Like in the work of a great master. I don't know if it's just coincidence but Martin Donovan, the heart and brain behind this work of art was Luchino Visconti's assistant in "Ludwig" Donovan stays on his characters's faces creating a feel of intimacy that made it a very personal experience for me. The telling looks of longing and desire live on their own because the characters never express it with words, on the contrary, they seem embattled, at odds with their own natures. If I were to intellectualize the equation I would say that Apartment Zero is an astonishing film about repression. The fact that such a thorny subject can be express in such an entertaining, adult and uncompromising way, is a miracle in itself.

"Thriller"? "Psychological"? "So many layers"? "Great performances"? "Amazing film"? I blink in amazement. Although I should make that list in reverse order - but actually I am a bit mad myself! and you know why? For watching this "unbelievable mess of a movie", as one of the less than few sane reviewers warns.

Even if taken as camp the film is a disaster: ludicrous, lewd, of a badness not to be believed references to Hitchcock, Polanski, and what you will, but without any talent at all! Or purpose. At all!

Bad, hyperbolic angles, a scenario probably written in two days, expression that passes, on the same face (but one cannot be terribly sure, it may be another's), from the thriller cookbook to the camp grin in less than a second, and then more bad angles.

Even if the director-screenwriter wanted to play in Argento's territory, sorry but Argento has a touch that can't be assimilated, even if one is a fan, or not.

I think the majority of the reviewers were practically joking, paying homage to what they saw, which is I would say excitingly laudable, to imitate what you love so much, that you begin acting like it.

Adrian LeDuc is a nut. Everyone knows that. His neighbors talk about him in a whisper. They've never been inside his apartment and their imagination takes them through the most perverse scenarios. They couldn't possibly imagine the innocence of the man or his loneliness. Colin Firth creates a character with a million different faces without ever changing his. He could be an emotional wax work. The fact that he invents an identity for himself shouldn't come as a big surprise, he doesn't have one of his own and that is abundantly clear from the first time we see him. He is in the projection booth of his movie theater looking at the screen as if he was in the peep room of a sex shop - Ironic how things are going to turn out. "Apartment Zero" is almost 20 years old but it feels ahead of its time, still. I was able to see it again in its theatrical version with those 6 minutes missing from the video release. Oh what a difference 6 minutes make. There are moments that underline Adrian's loneliness at the beginning, so powerful that the lecture of the entire film is based on the effect provoked by those chilling moments. Adrian/Colin talking to himself at night for instance. Hart Bochner (what an intriguing piece of casting) makes a star entrance that seems to come straight out of Adrian/Colin's cinematic mind. The star has arrived and everything is about to change. Everything will be destined to cater his comfort and well being. Laundry, breakfasts. The star is essential in the movie of Colin/Adrian's life. Hart Bochner - his character's name is Jack Carney, "carne" in Spanish means "meat" - realizes very soon the power he has over Adrian but he doesn't know how to use it. His own feelings (first he discovers to have feelings in a superlative piece of subtle, brilliant acting) get mangled and his frustration takes different forms. Hart intermingles with each one of the neighbors. Those moments in themselves are like short movies with their own kind feel. Suspenseful, erotic, farcical, romantic. - If you listen to Martin Donovan's (the director) commentary in the DVD he credits his actors for practically everything but there is a love there that I'm sure allowed him to get into the darkness with such assured step, fearlessly. The DVD also includes a great exchange between David Koepp and Steven Sodebergh - "Apartment Zero" is unmissable from every front.

I've seen Apartment Zero once per decade, starting in the 90's. Every time it left me with a different feeling. The humor, the sadness, the fear...In spite of the darkness there is something about this movie that exudes love. I can't explain it. Flawed characters if not downright unlikeable become compelling, irresistible. Colin Firth is astonishing - in 1988 ! - not a single false move. He seems so uneasy with real people, tight, hermetic - that's why the entrance of Hart Bochner - superb! - seems to come out of a cinematic mind and Colin surrenders, without meaning or even knowing it, he does. Dressed in a sensational score This movie, over the years, has become an essential to me. Oh yeah.

Martin Donovan unlocks the doors to 'Apartment Zero'. Set in Argentina, he introduces the viewer to the bizarre world of Adrian (Colin Firth), his neighbours and his new housemate, Jack (Hart Bochner). Leading an isolated life struggling with the deterioration of his mother's mental health and financial difficulties while finding some comfort in his revival theatre, Adrian's life is about to change after the arrival of Jack. Even the neighbours, who're otherwise meeting everyday in the downstairs hallway to gossip, take a liking to Jack. Little do they realize that he's too good to be true but the audience already knows there's something fishy.

While the story sounds straightforward, there's plenty of awkwardness and twists going on and it just gets more bizarre as it nears the end. Donovan really manages to involve the viewer into this familiar yet strange unsettling world. I also liked how the director displays the homoerotic undertones without pinpointing the sexual identity of the two leads.

The screenplay is exceptionally well written. The dialogues are dark, funny and poetic. One that I particularly remember is the conversation between Vanessa and Jack after she's harassed at the theatre. When Jack asks her why she lowers herself, she answers him saying that she's already low and that she feels safe in the darkness that exists in this low place (or something to that effect). Another sharp dialogue I remember is one mentioned by Adrian, 'If that is a mask please take it off now, or keep it on forever'.

On the technical side, 'Apartment Zero' is pretty well crafted. The cinematography captures the mystery of the beauty of Argentina and the claustrophobic building of apartment zero. The score is very good and the lighting is first rate.

Hart Bochner does a fine job as Jack. Jack's charm, that he uses to seduce people, is effectively displayed but it is his smile that reveals to the viewer that there's something fishy about this guy. Of the supporting cast, James Telfer stood out to me the most as the transvestite who's confident enough with her own identity but is consequently rejected by others. The most outstanding performance comes from Colin Firth. Playing Adrian couldn't have been easy but Firth's nuanced portrayal of this complex character comes across as very natural on screen. Whether it's Adrian's gait, the changes in his facial expressions, his line delivery or his spontaneous reaction, Firth does it effortlessly.

'Apartment Zero' is an underrated classic. It's definitely recommended to those looking for something dark and twisted and different from the standard Hollywood fair. I'll certainly be paying this one a revisit.