THE BOY NEXT DOOR

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www.camrosecanadian.com

Obsession.  We’ve all obsessed over something; whether it be a sports figure, a superhero, an actress (cough cough Scarlett Johanssen), or even the cool kid in your class.  And it’s that state of emotion that has been used as fodder for many films throughout the years.  1996’s Fear is one that immediately comes to mind for me, mainly due to the hauntingly creepy performance by then new-to-film Mark Wahlberg.  Today director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious, Dragonheart) brings us the tale of The Boy Next Door.

Jennifer Lopez stars as Claire Peterson, a high school teacher and mother who is recently separated with her husband Garrett (John Corbett) while still housing their son Kevin (Ian Nelson).  One day, while having mechanical issues with their garage door, enter Noah (Ryan Guzman) – the nephew of their next door neighbour who is down to take care of his ailing uncle.  Arriving as a Good Samaritan, Noah is immediately adored by the Petersons. Not wasting time to show his true motives he waits until Kevin is away for the weekend and calls Claire under the guise of a failing meal attempt.  After she arrives he uses his slick words and even smoother moves to seduce Claire.  After a night of intense passion, Claire realizes the error of her ways and tells Noah that it can never happen again.  Noah, however, thinks the night meant much more and takes the rejection personally.  Not taking no for an answer, Noah begins to obsess over Claire and things turn more grim the more she pushes him away.

The film moves forward, getting darker as it progresses then begins to take a turn for the worse.  What started as a simple and decent obsession movie turns quickly into a late night made-for-TV thriller and even crosses the line of cheesy 80’s slasher flick.  The veteran actress Lopez still hasn’t seemed to have picked up the acting gene while Guzman’s threats and action borderline on painful over-acting that would make Jim Carrey proud.  Corbett’s veteran presence helped his screen time and even Nelson’s character (although far too easily swayed) was done well.  Kristin Chenoweth’s portrayal of Vicky (Claire’s friend and the vice-principal) was a different story, losing all credibility the other supporting cast tried to establish.  The “love scene” if you wanted to call it that was unnecessarily graphic and it came across as uncomfortable instead of passionate.  The rating of this movie does no justice as that scene alone (plus another) should have given it a much harsher rating. Finally, I know have called movies predictable in the past, but this one moves along like a kindergarten connect-the-dots in terms of both predictability and timing.  If you haven’t figured out this movie in the first 15 minutes, try your best to stay longer (unlike the group of people sitting in front of me in the theatre).