The Girl Next Door (II) (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

Enjoyable above average thriller

[raymond-15 · 6/10 · 25 March 2002]

A married doctor with a pregnant wife is asked by his neighbour to keep an eye on his daughter while absent for a few days, ensuring that no harm comes to her. A simple request... The good doctor agrees... but there are unbelievable consequences.

The daughter becomes attracted to the good-looking doctor and one night they enjoy sex on her sofa. The doctor decides that this kind of behaviour should stop but he continues to drop in as promised. When the daughter is found strangled one morning, the doctor becomes the prime suspect.

The most exciting moment in the film is when the frantic doctor attempts to retrieve a video film of himself half-naked in the girl's living room, a scene highly incriminating. Against the wishes of his attorney, the doctor decides to make a clean breast of it and in court reveal the true facts. Important evidence seems to be the green thread found underneath the dead girl's fingernails. It is not difficult to spot the guilty person.

None of the suspicious characters loitering around the girl's windows have any real motives for her murder. The final explanation is acceptable. On the whole an above average thriller.

Not bad for a Canadian Movie

[Doug-22 · 4/10 · 17 September 2000]

This movie kept my interest till the end,more than most Canadian movies which tend to be mediocre.The acting,though was sub standard.Overall, a good popcorn home video for Saturday night.If I wasn't interested in "who done it" I would have turned it off because of the bad acting!!

One of them

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 10 July 2022]

There are so many girls next door - you can't keep track of them. And while I thought about it, I reckon most of us have one of them. Depending on where you lay the bar that is of course. Not that you won't be judged the same way mind you.

That aside, this is a decent thriller, that did not exactly go as I expected. Even having some moral ambiguity to it. Apart from the sexual attraction our main male character does something else that is awful ... way more awful than being attracted to a beautiful young woman (girl) ... but something that the movie is not really paying too much attention too. Or at least it does not judge him on it - it lets the audience do that ... if they do that.

Gary Busey playing a straight character was also a sight to be seen ... well surprises can happen.

Unpretentious and worth a look!

[uds3 · 7/10 · 17 October 2003]

A rating of 4.5 is absurdly low for this genuine and uncomplicated little study of a gentle doctor's emotional deconstruction after having (although quite understandably) overstepped the line whilst baby-sitting his neighbor's 18 year old daughter and who tragically is murdered - with each and every clue about to incriminate him.

Whodunnit really doesn't matter - the denouement is hardly a surprise anyway, as no one else in the picture has the slightest motive! The strength of this little Canadian offering lies in both Czerney's performance as the harried Doctor Bradley and ultra cute Polly Shannon as the 18 year old schoolgirl that Bradley has known and doctored since she was little. This isn't a hot sexy saga of lust in the dust...just an outline of a very credible set of circumstances that could easily lead to such a tragedy.

Contrary to several reviewers, I don't see the script as trite and unbelievable. The story at no time strives to be "Hollywoodish." What you see is very much what you get! Totally believable performances. I think faced with the exact same circumstances Czerny was....I might well have fallen into the same pit he did..and lived to regret the action, but not the evening!

Easily a 6! Very solid little contribution from Busey which I think he handled with both sensitivity and restraint.

There are many films in the IMDb top 250 I would less prefer to watch again!

Very predictable and familiar but an OKAY flick all-in-all

[Pelrad · 7/10 · 19 April 1999]

Here's a familiar theme: an older physician has an affair with a young beauty while his wife is pregnant. She is murdered. He's now a suspect. Her parent's are good friends of his. They can't know what happened. Oh dear! She took a video of him after the act. He's gotta get his hands on it!

Even though her ex-boyfriend was stalking her before the murder, no-one suspects him! Incredible! They all suspect the NEW mysterious lover, but they don't know his identity. Oooh!

Alright, aside from a very predictable plot and a theme that has received overkill from Hollywood, it's an alright flick to watch if there's nothing else good on t.v.

Stylish thriller with shades of film noir

[poetvox · 8/10 · 26 September 2001]

I found this an effective, low-keyed thriller with a thought-provoking sidebar, i.e., the lead character's moral dilemma: does he confess to one "crime" which may lead to being tried for a larger crime he did not commit? A minor tour-de-force for protagonist, Henry Czerny, who has his own take on Robert Redford's "uncomfortable look;" whereas Redford's is largely cerebral, Czerny has his churning guts (guilt, guilt)emerge through his eyes.

Film is also well-directed by veteran Till who knows something about pacing and editing (he knows what to leave out and when, which I appreciate) as well as establishing mood. He must also have a feel for film noir since he does a nice job with Czerny's trapped man role. The basic plot line is nothing out of the ordinary, but Till and company invest it with some inventive twists and shadings, such as how Czerny must deal with an incriminating video cassette and the person who views it. There's also a convincing sense of the town with its affluent trappings. Admittedly, the revelation of the real murderer is somewhat unsatisfying but is followed through with thought and imagination.

Up until this review, voting had been at 4.8, which makes it seem underrated to me. I saw it while sick at home and it grabbed my attention while I dozed or slept through other movie offerings. If you like quiet suspense films with noir overtones, you might this worth your time.

Accidents of Love

[davidcarniglia · 7/10 · 24 October 2023]

Very good suspenseful doomed romance with fatal complications. It starts off as a creepy older guy/younger girl affair, and ends up with a bit of a body count.

Usually films of this type degenerate into stalking simple-minded revenge plots, but here the unfortunate infatuation of the doctor and his friend's daughter, which does reach a brick wall when she's murdered, immediately shifts into noir territory. The romance itself is quite believable because both the girl's amped-up crush and the doctor's vulnerable state-- triggered perhaps his wife's on the verge of giving birth--though stereotypical, play out with sensitivity.

Instead of a lynch mob mentality automatically blaming the ex-boyfriend, he's pretty much exonerated from her murder right away. Interestingly, the doctor has deeply implicated himself even though he's only guilty of not looking out for her.

That's doubly ironic, because his over-attention to her in effect resulted in his backing off just when he should've been there for him. The pool guy is a great red-herring character; he clearly suspects what the doc is up to with the girl, but nothing ever comes of it.

The green jacket (bit of evidence) we think must be the doc's, but, very unexpectedly, it belongs to the ex-boyfriend's dad. That revelation leads to the surprising climax car chase; but it's the scene between the two suspects, which immediately preceeds the vengeful chase, that's a fine bit of high-stakes bargaining with the devil.

Both guys are morally compromised, but the attorney is the murderer; even so, it's clear that he never intended to kill her. I sort of wished that they would indeed reach an agreement, as I had a few shreds of sympathy for him.

But he turns out to be a complete loose-cannon. Another strange element is the newspaper guy's accidental death. The videotape incriminating the doctor seems to be the ultimate bloody red flag; when he burns it, we're left thinking that it's not the end of it, but it is.

The good performances really make this work. All the essentials are there for a Hallmark movie, but this transcends melodrama. Very rewarding viewing experience.

The Bomb, not A Bomb!

[Juliet Gabriella Kaleigh · 10/10 · 13 September 2000]

I loved this movie, I gave it a 10. I thought it was filmed well, very beautiful colors in the movie, especially the rain and the trees. I thought that the plot was WONDERFUL, the acting was good. I thought this movie was going to be bad, because it was on HBO late at night. But I was wrong, I watched this one twice. Has enough thrills and action to keep you watching, and also the acting was not what you would expect!

Waaaay better than the 5 IMDb rating

[feev · 9/10 · 23 November 2022]

This one drew me right in..... Several great twists and turns with excellent acting and perfect music to go along with this film.

It is listed as a thriller but it took some time for me to figure out it actually IS a thriller when at first I was thinking it was going to be just a drama.

The actors all did sucha a superb believable job.

Every time I thought I had it figured out, I found that I did NOT.

At first I thought it was going to be just some boring Lifetime movie that my wife would enjoy.... Haha.... But I ended up being very much wrong!!

Definitely give this one a look!! Great ending too, IMO.

If you were expecting bad.....it's worse!(Spoilers)

[archeron · 12 July 2003]

Possible Spoilers Ahead!!

Where shall we start? Take every possible cliche that you can think of and add a pinch of hack dialog, stir in average acting (with the exception of the usually entertaining Gary Busey)and you have this potpourri of garbage. To top it all off you can include an actress that is "supposed" to be 18 who looks much older (Shades of Beverly Hills 90210). All of the characters' behaviors run the gamut from ridiculous (throwing a party and allowing the person who has been threatening you to attend without giving it a second thought) to reprehensible. There are no characters that are even mildly likeable, which renders this exercise in film futility a complete waste of time. Please save 90 minutes of your life that would be better spent watching your grass grow.