Main Cast: Matthew Lillard, Michael Vartan, Randall Batinkoff, Keri Russell, Tamara Craig Thomas
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Dan Rosen directed this thriller, filmed in and around Baltimore, based on the college urban legend that you get a cool 4.0 semester grade if your roommate commits suicide. Roommates Rand (Randall Batinkoff), manipulative Tim (Matthew Lillard), and good-guy Chris (Michael Vartan) are seniors at a university where this legend is legit. Since Rand mistreats his pregnant girlfriend Natalie (Tamara Craig Thomas), he's the obvious choice. Tim gets Cliff to assist in Rand's "suicidal" leap from a cliff -- but with that foul deed done, Tim points the police in Chris's direction and then seduces Chris' girlfriend Emma (Keri Russell). After Natalie really does commit suicide, students, cops, and the campus psychiatrist (Dana Delaney) begin to ask probing questions. Track tunes include The Cure, Suzanne Vega, Joy Division, and The Smiths. Shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
The Curve is a decently twisty thriller whose title is both a reference to the academic grading curve and an indicator that the plot will toss a lot of curveballs. In part because of the presence of typecast schemer Matthew Lillard, who's gleefully at home in double-crossing revenge fantasies set in the college environment, The Curve sometimes recalls Scream, but without the sense of fun and self-aware parody. In fact, the level of spite and ill will is so high that it's really not much fun at all. There's something disturbing about the callousness with which these characters attempt to ruin one another, making the whole thing seem a little exaggerated. It also has the off-putting self-congratulatory feel of a movie too proud of its incisive ambitions. Still, it's hard to deny that there's style to its dark tone and serpentine plot developments, and probably some accuracy to the mean spirit of college students jealous of each other's achievements. After its Sundance screening, The Curve went straight to video, where its cast of up-and-comers -- including Keri Russell, who had made a splash as the star of TV's Felicity by this point -- earned the film an appreciative cult following. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
The Curve is a 1998thriller/neo-noir starring Matthew Lillard, Keri Russell, and Michael Vartan. The film is also known as Dead Man's Curve, but was changed to The Curve to avoid confusion with the film Dead Man on Campus, a comedy about two college roommates who try to find another depressed roommate to push over the edge, in order to receive all A's.
In the UK and Australia it was released as Dead Man's Curve
A soundtrack album featuring music from the film was released by Chromatic Records.
The story follows Tim, Chris and Rand who are campus roommates. After hearing of a school policy, which says that anyone whose roommate commits suicide gets an automatic 4.0 GPA (see: Pass by catastrophe), Tim and Chris plot to kill Rand and make it look like suicide. After the suicide, Rand's girlfriend Natalie (The roommate of Chris' girlfriend Emma) is distraught and commits suicide as well. The story takes several plot twists as each persons motives come to light and the truth is revealed.
