The Girl Next Door

Rating:
Summary: Modest but pleasing modern noir
Review: Henry Czerny plays a married Doctor ,asked by his vacationing neighbours to keep an eye on their nubile teenage daughter,who is being harrassed by a fellow student unable to accept the end of their affair.An affair develops betweem them and she films him getting dressed afterr a sex session,which is somewhat unfortunate as she is shortly afterwards murdered,placing him in an invidious position as he wrestles with both conscience and adesire to protect his freedom,marriage and social standing.

The plot is well worked out although the murderer is easily spotted.Good acting and direction make for a pleasing time passer

Rating:
Summary: I disagree....
Review: I first saw this movie last fall on one of the pay movie channels and enjoyed it. While it certainly is not a work of artistic genius, it's a fun movie to watch late at night and I thought it had sufficient eroticism and suspense to keep me watching. It is the sort of movie that won't require much thinking but it fulfills its purpose of entertaining and I tend to be one that is very critical of the mindless material the movie industry now releases.

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant , suspenseful surprise
Review: I viewed this movie with some trepidation, given the title and the somewhat lurid box art. I've followed Henry Czerny's career with interest, and have found his career choices intriguing, so I thought, what the heck. In brief, I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of performances, production, and particularly the direction. In less talented hands, this could've been movie-of-the-week schlock, but here, it's quite effectively presented. Very little that could be called gratuitous...nicely atmospheric...something of a "neighborhood noir." Again: a pleasant surprise, and kudos to Czerny, an excellent supporting cast (who ARE those guys? ), and a director who bears watching.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable, Boring, and Stupid
Review: This movie is predictable right from the start and really stupid in places. The plot is simple enough, middle aged man with pregnant wife becomes infatuated with neighbors' 18 year old daughter. The man has a very brief affair with the girl after which she turns up dead and the man is now a prime suspect. What is stupid about the whole mess is the fact that nobody seems to be suspicious of the girl's boyfriend, someone who had been stalking her before the affair, everyone is more suspicious about the girl's new mysterious lover. To make the entire mess even more unbelievable, the girl took a video of the single night of passion that she had with her neighbour and he now has to get his hands on it.

The movie is also listed as an "Erotic Thriller". Well, there is very little erotic about the movie at all, in fact there are only two semi-sexy scenes in the movie. The first features the girl taking a skinny dip in the pool and the second is the girl and man having sex for the first and only time. Both times the scene is shot in darkness and you cannot see anything worthwhile to suggest any real nudity or eroticism.

The DVD is also very bare bones. There is very little extra on it. My advice, avoid this movie at all cost and instead consider one (or all) of the Poison Ivy movies.