8 - Rosemary's Baby

    A couple moves into a new apartment, and a strange things start happening, following through Rosemary’s pregnancy.
    I’ve never been a big fan of Polanski’s work.  I like the ideas in his movies more than the execution.  I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the idea in this movie either.  I wonder if it was just much more influential for the time.  Now, it seems tame and pretty slow.
    It does build to a pretty decent payoff, in a climactic scene that’s both surreal and kind of pleasant, at least in how upfront it is.
    But the slowness of the rest of the movie seems quaint by modern standards.  In order for the plot to be stretched out to fill two hours plus, Rosemary is mostly an idiot.  She’s absurdly trusting of people she’s otherwise suspicious of.  Her outrage at spousal rape seems to be short-lived, amounting to about a line or two of annoyance.
    Through most of the story, she’s supposed to have a strained relationship with her husband.  And she does.  But this never seems to bother her much.
    Maybe the problem is just that Rosemary isn’t a very resourceful lady.  Maybe this was more acceptable back in the 60s, but now, she just seems like more of a caricature.
    This isn’t to say that the movie is bad.  I prefer it to most of the other Polanski movies I’ve seen.  I still don’t think I would bother watching it again, but for historical horror purposes, it seems worthwhile.