Over my recent vacation to Mexico (my first one in over half a decade), I spent most of my days with my Kindle reading in the pool as I baked in the Gulf sun. The first work I devoured in the pool was Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, which was a major blind spot for me both in book and film form, and I was enraptured by Levin’s brutally satirical prose which painted a terrifying, yet enjoyable, cautionary tale during New York’s burgeoning yuppie era of the mid-1960s. Roman Polanski’s 1968 film adaptation with Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon captured this near perfectly with a dreamlike nature that never skewed either way towards dream or nightmare, merely a hazy wander through the joy and terror that pregnancy can give someone. While there have been attempts at recapturing the magic of Rosemary’s Baby over the years, including the 1973 TV movie Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, the sequel novel Son of Rosemary by Levin, and the 2014 NBC mini-series remake starring Zoë Saldaña, none have ever been successful in capturing the impact that Levin’s novel, Polanski’s film, and Farrow’s haircut had on culture. Now, 56 years on from the original film’s release, Paramount is taking another whack at chasing the phenomenon with sophomore director Natalie Erika James (director of my #1 film of 2020, Relic) taking on the story of Terry Gionoffrio, the young woman who Rosemary meets in the laundry room in Rosemary’s Baby (1968).
Julia Garner as Terry Gionoffrio in APARTMENT 7A, streaming on Paramount+ 2024. Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell/Paramount+.
Teresa “Terry” Gionoffrio (Julia Garner) is a young woman working as a dancer on Broadway in 1965. When she is severely injured during a performance, her career comes to a screeching halt, and she finds herself alone in a city with no use for her. Unemployed, addicted to pain pills, and desperate for the attention of Broadway mogul Alan Marchand (Jim Sturgess), she is taken in by elderly couple Minnie (Dianne Wiest) and Roman Castevet (Kevin McNally), who find her struggling outside Marchand’s apartment building, The Bramford, where the Castevets also live. Charmed by their hospitality and genuine want for her to recover, Terry’s life begins to get back on track. She lands a spot as a dancer in Marchand’s new show, her leg begins to heal quickly, and she discovers she is pregnant with Marchand’s baby after a spiked drink and a night she cannot recall. Initially planning on having an abortion, the Castevets convince Terry to keep the child. While the early days of the pregnancy seem normal enough, complications ensue that make Terry wonder if her kind neighbors at The Bramford really have her best interest in mind.
L-R: Jim Sturgess as Alan Marchand and Julia Garner as Terry Gionoffrio in APARTMENT 7A, streaming on Paramount+ 2024. Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell/Paramount+.
Does Apartment 7A make much sense in the canon of Rosemary’s Baby? Not really. Does that matter? Eh…kind of. This is essentially the main gist that Apartment 7A pushed, especially given that the film is well-directed and exceptionally acted, but lacks much of a point. A prequel to Rosemary’s Baby that covers the tale of another girl who fell to the charms of the sinister Castevets? Sure! Love that! Unfortunately, with so much having to ride on a character already established, albeit shallowly, things definitely veer into the “legacy prequel” territory, and while Rosemary’s Baby has certainly earned its legacy (despite the director being a patently horrid human), this film hitting many of the same plot points that the original film did but merely through the lens of a performer, doesn’t do enough to make it pop the way it should.
Dianne Wiest as Minnie Castavet in APARTMENT 7A, streaming on Paramount+ 2024. Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell/Paramount+.
However, I really must emphasize how much everyone tries to make it work as best as they possibly can, particularly James, who imbues the film with a wonderfully theatrical quality that echoes the deviously clever ways that Polanski used to capture the less savory, R-rated elements of the story through different means, particularly the subject of rape (which is, of course, grossly ironic given Polanski’s whole … thing). James utilizing the staging of Broadway musicals of the 1960s to take Terry through her journey of coping with sexual assault through the lens of birthing the antichrist is perhaps the strongest directorial element that Apartment 7A has, and when she leans into it, especially near the film’s conclusion, is when the film has the most life, and I longed for it when the film dipped back into the rehashing of the original.
L-R: Julia Garner as Terry Gionoffrio and Dianne Wiest as Minnie Castavet in APARTMENT 7A, streaming on Paramount+ 2024. Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell/Paramount+.
Perhaps the strongest elements that Apartment 7A has to it as a whole are its performances, which are stellar across the board, even during the film’s duller moments. There’s no doubt that Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel) is one of her generation’s finest actresses, and she commits beautifully to this role, including physically with some gorgeous musical sequences that she nails. While she’s not touching Farrow’s (Rosemary’s Baby) performance 56 years ago, to do such great work with some occasionally uninspired material is impressive. There’s a presence and life to her characters that feel so much more alive than those played by many other actresses of her age, and it always works, even when the work surrounding her doesn’t. Meanwhile, Dianne Wiest (Edward Scissorhands) is doing her absolute best Ruth Gordon (Rosemary’s Baby) impersonation. And, while initially you can argue that it’s nothing more than an impersonation, as the film progresses and she gets more material to flesh out Minnie Castevet with, you remember that this is Dianne f*cking Wiest we’re dealing with here, and that she’s going to give you so much more than just a voice, she is a presence that plays off of Garner’s Terry’s naïveté so twistedly. Is she as iconic as Ruth Gordon? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, but credit where great credit is due. McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl), Sturgess (Across the Universe), and Marli Siu (Anna and the Apocalypse) also give good performances here, but it’s Garner and Wiest’s devilish dynamic which steals the show.
L-R: Dianne Wiest as Minnie Castavet and Julia Garner as Terry Gionoffrio in APARTMENT 7A, streaming on Paramount+ 2024. Photo Credit: Gareth Gatrell/Paramount+.
That’s what makes Apartment 7A coming up just so short of being a worthwhile prequel so painful. It’s clear that everyone has their heart in this fully, but the need for Paramount to push this as some sort of legacy prequel when distancing itself from the imminent events of Rosemary’s Baby would have provided the film much more breathing room to do something more unique than to extrapolate (rather inaccurately) the experiences of a minor character from the original. It all screams “studio interference” in something that, without it, could’ve really justified itself with its lovely direction and fabulous performances. These are the most frustrating types of reviews to delve into because Apartment 7A didn’t just have potential, it was actively showing us, in moments, exactly what the entire thing could’ve been had that wiggle room been given, and I wanted those moments to last for the entire runtime. A little Black Swan (2010), a little Suspiria (1977; 2018), and of course, a little Rosemary’s Baby, it all could’ve been glorious. I expected no less from Natalie Erika James’s follow up to Relic, and I just hope her follow-up to Apartment 7A is with a studio that trusts her immense talents much more.
Also, not for nothing, this film should’ve been in theaters. Nothing with Julia Garner and Dianne Wiest headlining, let alone a horror film, should be relegated to any streaming service, let alone Paramount+.
Screening during Fantasia International Film Festival 2024.
Available on digital and Paramount+ September 27th, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 Apartment 7A webpage.
Final Score: 2.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews, streaming
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