The Girl Next Door, whose title sounds more ominous than the movie actually is (something along the lines of Single White Female), is based on overused TV movie themes of jealousy and betrayal. Predictable from the start, it almost appears to follow a true-story plot line. The ending was especially overdramatic and silly. Definitely not one of the better TV movies.
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camillavilla22 September 2010This is easily one of those movies you watch because you're simply bored. The beginning was decent, acting was sub-par, but watchable. But as the story continued, nothing progressed. The plot-line was completely empty and void of anything special. It was nothing but cliché and predictable.
Basically this girl named Annie meets the "man of her dreams" (a dirty cop) who is married with a couple kids. He talks and seduces Annie into killing his wife and then filling in as her replacement. Annie, being young and dramatically naive, falls into the trap and becomes the children's step-in-mother (the cop and Annie do not get married). Most of the movie is flashbacks from Annie's point of view while telling the FBI exactly what happened and how she was fooled into killing the cop's wife. The end of the movie was nothing special and lacked any climax. It pretty much went exactly as you'd think - the house was wired by the FBI to catch the cop talking about the murder, he was caught, and they were both thrown in jail. The cop got life, and Annie got 10 years on second degree murder.
The entire movie was, in my opinion, a waste. I was hoping the last three minutes would give some dramatic twist or flashback to what really happened... but nothing. You're just left with Annie and one of the FBI agents having the most boring, unreal conversation while she's in jail. -
lavatch1 June 2021Annie Nolan is a poor, little waif who is overly dependent on men. Her father walked out on her and her mother, and ever since, Annie has wrestled with issues of self-esteem and autonomy. In her own world, it is as if Annie is self-imprisoned by her neurosis.
When Annie meets Craig Mitchell, he appears to be a kind cop and everything she has dreamed of in a man. But Craig is married, and Annie doesn't listen to her bestie, Julie, who recognizes that Annie is being trapped and exploited by Craig.
The filmmakers were successful in making credible the seemingly implausible scenario that Craig coerces Annie into killing his wife Wendy, so that they can be together. In the eye of the law, Craig is guilty of "solicitation of murder." Still, it was never quite convincing that she would carry out the murder.
The more successful strand of Annie's interior struggle was the guilt that enveloped her life as she tried to adapt to being a mom to the two orphaned Mitchell children, Dougie and Alisa. The guilt kept her confined in the prison she created for herself.
The most ghoulish moment in the film is when Annie discovers a loose shoe in the house that once belonged to Wendy. In a horrific scene, Annie tires the shoe on her foot, and the result is not that of Cinderella. Rather, the experience conjures up the deceased Wendy, driving Annie deeper into the vortex of emotional anguish.
It is fitting that the closing scene of the film is set in the jail house, where Annie's metaphorical bars have now become real ones. She is visited by the kind psychologist, Dr. Gayle Bennett, who had carefully drawn out a confession from Annie. For her part, the psychologist helped the young woman to discover a greater sense of autonomy that she will have time to explore during ten years in prison. -
mmunier15 February 2010Midday show on the TV Just I let it run and kept an eye on it. Perhaps it was the right way to watch it! But I did not feel all this bad about it. Girl with low self esteem meet Mr. Wonderful,a cope. Married with 2 children . The cope convinces the girl that they'll be free and happy when she kills his wife. And all goes according to plan apart from the girl, now the wife and mother of the two children that has to live with herself and this was not supposed to be so difficult. I did not mind the idea to explore the impact, and can believe it could happen. Perhaps predictable but I found it to be an interesting subject to develop and found it realistic enough for this crazy world of ours that seems so surprised when something big happens although with have all the ingredient at the tip of our fingers for anything to happen. Like today's news in Australia where a 13 year old stabs to death another child. No it's not just in movies or novels, very unusual situations develop, sometime with dire consequences and occasionally with amazing twist. Here there is no real twist just the logical conclusion of a weight too heavy to bear.