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Chances are after you watch this movie, you’ll think twice before renting an apartment under the Brooklyn Bridge. Predictable though it might be, the plot does offer sufficient mystery and suspense to safely put this one into the “psychological thriller” category.
Hillary Swank is superb in conveying the varied emotions of surprise, dismay, elation, hesitancy, curiosity, and shock in her relationships with her landlord, her ex, her doctor-colleagues, and even her landlord’s grumpy old grandfather. The spook-factor and the creepy-factor are present at pretty decent levels, and yet, the overall quality of the film unfortunately does not rise above average. Perhaps had the story included the reasons for the landlord’s perverse behaviors– in spying on his tenants, etc.– there might have been more intrigue. Also, the relationship with the landlord and his grandfather are touched upon just enough to pique one’s curiosity, but again, this is never explored.
All in all, not bad at all, but in my view, Oscar-winner Hillary Swank’s time might have used her time in more productive and artistic endeavors.
Updated February 25, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Feb. 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the garage of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others.
On Feb. 26, 1852, John Harvey Kellogg, the American physician who developed dry cereal, was born. Following his death on Dec. 14, 1943, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
Historic Birthdays
John Harvey Kellogg 2/26/1852 – 12/14/1943 American physician who developed dry cereal.Go to obituary »
58 Wenceslas 2/26/1361 – 8/16/1419
German king (as Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia)56 Archibald Argyll 2/26/1629 – 6/30/1685
Scottish Protestant leader83 Victor Hugo 2/26/1802 – 5/22/1885
French poet, novelist and dramatist70 William F. Cody 2/26/1846 – 1/10/1917
American buffalo hunter and Indian scout71 Honore Daumier 2/26/1808-2/10/1879
French caricaturist, painter and sculptor64 Herbert H. Dow 2/26/1866 – 10/15/1930
American founder of Dow Chemical Co.91 Rudolph Dirks 2/26/1877 – 4/20/1968
American cartoonist of “Katzenjammer Kids”70 Francesco Borgongini-Duca 2/26/1884 – 10/4/1954
Italian Vatican cardinal66 Sir Benegal Narsing Rau 2/26/1887 – 11/29/1953
Indian jurist63 Grover Cleveland Alexander 2/26/1887 – 11/4/1950
American professional baseball player89 Vercors (b. Jean Marcel Bruller) 2/26/1902 – 6/10/1991
French novelist and artist53 Margaret Leighton 2/26/1922 – 1/13/1976
English stage and film actress
More than 5,000 Syrians have died from President Bashar al-Assad’s butchery. The international community finally has a sense of urgency, but it has yet to come up with a strategy to end the killing. It needs to try harder.
There should be no illusions. This is an incredibly difficult problem. Most countries, the United States included, have rightly ruled out military intervention. Mr. Assad is determined to resist, no matter what the cost. The Syrian Army is far stronger and better armed than that of Libya’s under Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. There is legitimate fear that a foreign intervention would unleash an even bloodier civil war and possibly spread beyond Syria’s borders.
The only hope is that the Syrian people are determined to resist and Mr. Assad’s isolation is growing. At a meeting in Tunis on Friday, more than 60 governments and organizations agreed to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on the Syrian leader and vowed to find ways to support opposition forces trying to depose him.
On Monday, the European Union plans to freeze the assets of Syria’s central bank. The meeting called on all nations to impose additional sanctions, including travel bans on all of Mr. Assad’s cronies and a wider embargo on purchases of Syrian oil. But Syria still has far too many powerful protectors.
Russia and China have blocked any action at the United Nations Security Council. Russia and Iran are selling arms to Syria. The United States and Europe need to use all of their powers of persuasion and shaming to get Moscow and Beijing to cut all ties. Iran is obviously a lost cause.
At the meeting, countries also pledged millions of dollars worth of food and medicine to help people in Syria’s besieged cities. Officials suggested the aid could be distributed from border areas in Turkey, Jordan and, possibly, Lebanon. Mr. Assad is unlikely to let that happen.
Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, has been under a fierce government bombardment for three weeks. Scores of people have been killed in the shelling, and desperate residents are facing severe shortages of food and medical supplies. It is time for the United States and others to take a serious look at proposals by Turkey and others to create humanitarian corridors linking besieged communities to neighboring countries or safe zones along those borders. Both would require air cover and would be risky.
The meeting also called for the creation of a joint Arab League-United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed if a cease-fire is reached. Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, has been appointed to pursue that solution. There is no sign whatsoever that Mr. Assad will cooperate.
The worsening violence — and the mismatch between the 200,000-member Syrian Army and ragtag rebel forces — has accelerated calls, especially from the gulf states, to arm the opposition. Some countries are already quietly doing that. The United States this week opened the door to the possibility. At a minimum, Washington and its allies should consider providing communications equipment, intelligence and military training.
This will amount to little if the opposition — divided along ethnic and sectarian lines — fails to unite and offer a credible vision of a post-Assad future in which the rights of all Syrians will be respected. The leader of one group, the Syrian National Council, offered encouraging words on Friday, but there is a very long way to go. The United States and its allies will have to work hard to help them get there. The horrors and the death toll keep mounting.
