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| Girl Next Door, The |
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  (4/10)
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Runtime: 100 |
| Public Rating: 7.69 (16 votes) |
Director: Eric Till |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Thriller |
Year: 1999 |
| Writer(s): mel Frohman and Russ Firestone |
| Distributor: 1 |
| Reviewed by: Dan Smith |
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The Girl Next Door has a plot that has been driven into the ground by virtually every studio in Hollywood. Aside from that, it’s really not a bad movie; but it can’t be considered a great movie by any means.
Here’s the deal. It seems there has been a peeping tom in the area, so Mr. and Mrs. Winters ask their neighbor, Dr Arthur Bradley (Henry Czerny; Clear And Present Danger, After Alice) to keep an eye on their adolescent daughter Fiona (Polly Shannon; Devil’s Food, Hard To Forget) while they are out of town.
The mutual attraction between Fiona and Dr Bradley is obvious, and soon leads (predictably) to a sexual tryst between the two of them, at the conclusion of which, Fiona briefly films the good Doctor who is putting on his trousers preparatory to going back next door to his pregnant wife Mary (Alberta Watson; Chasing Cain, Tart).
I probably don’t need to go any farther with the story line; I am sure you can guess what happens from here. Fiona is raped and murdered, and the Dr. becomes a suspect. It suddenly becomes the Doctor’s priority to recover the incriminating video cassette, which he does while accidentally causing the death of Fiona’s grieving father (Robin Gammel; Bulworth, Bone Daddy). Enter the obligatory (for this often-used plot line) and ever suspicious Sheriff Larson (Gary Busey; The Rage, A Crack In The Floor). Busey plays the part well, but the character is ruined because he is focusing on the owner of a green windbreaker, threads of which were found under Fiona’s nails. While this might seem like logical police procedure, what makes the Sheriff’s character unbelievable is his apparent indifference to the fact that Fiona’s ex-boyfriend has been stalking her.
As I have pointed out repeatedly, this plotline has been done so many times that it is totally predictable, while it does have a nice twist when the unlikely murderer is finally exposed. The Girl Next Door is not a complete waste of time if you have nothing much to do on a rainy afternoon, just don’t go into it expecting too much. That way you wont be disappointed!
DTS
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