Imaginative, if slow, film making

Rating: Null/10 (29 October 2001)

Rosemary's Baby is a story about a woman named Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and her husband named Guy (John Cassavetes). They have moved into a new house, and decide to start a family. Their neighbours Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon, who won an Oscar for this role) at first seem nice, if not overwhelmingly so, but eventually Rosemary suspects that they are up to something... something evil.
Not far into "Rosemary's Baby," we see a chilling sequence of Rosemary having satanic nightmares. This sets us up for what we think is going to be a terrifying and intense movie.
Then something strange happens: nothing. The momentum is killed by nearly an hour of meandering as Rosemary argues with her husband, visits her friends, throws parties etc. etc. It is not until late in her pregnancy that she begins to suspect something is up. She begins to put together pieces that add up to something very wrong with her baby. Perhaps her neighbours are preparing to sacrifice her baby in some sort of satanic ritual... or worse, maybe the baby is Satan himself.
The final act of the film is some kind of genius. Throughout the movie little things provide Rosemary with theories about her baby. Roman Polanski leaves us in suspence because the ending is always in doubt. Her stories make so much sense, but at the same time, its hard to believe such evil could be occurring right under their noses. The final scenes are chilling and ominous.
"Rosemary's Baby" has sustained periods of brilliance, but there is an hour long void in the film. Is it worth seeing? I think so. A lot of people walked out due to boredom. I thought about doing that too, but the fantastic ending made me more than happy to have stuck it out.