On the surface, "Roulette" sounds very intriguing: three people at the end of their ropes sit alone in a dark room playing Russian roulette, some half-heartedly, some with no fear of dying whatsoever. During the session, we flashback to what events got them to this room at this time in their lives. The flashbacks are even round-robined, which helps the film's pace.
Unfortunately this film has, what I believe to be, the worst cast assembled for an indie film in quite some time. I understand how limited the budget is for films such as this, but there are talented people available in even the smallest cities. The casting directors for this film had little to no experience and it shows. Of course, I ultimately blame the director, who should have either waited to find better actors, given better or more direction, or just pulled the plug.
Few of the actors cast in lead roles here had anything but background experience and that's painfully obvious as well, the worst case being Michelle Murad's Zoe whose line readings are either irritatingly dippy sing-song or shrill shrieking. NONE of the three protagonists are well cast and therefore range from unlikable to laughable. Ali Lukowski works her facial muscles so stridently in order to (I guess) relay her character's sexual repression that she makes Sunny an ideal caricature for SNL (Right to life Girl?).
All of it makes Roulette an extremely hard film to sit through and tolerate. In the end, if you're not careful, you might be the one who ends up pulling the trigger.
