The Boy Next Door-2015

Director-Rob Cohen

Starring-Jennifer Lopez

Scott’s Review #254

Reviewed July 5, 2015

Grade: C-

A steamy direct rip-off of the 1987 classic film Fatal Attraction, The Boy Next Door is a by the numbers, a mainstream thriller starring Jennifer Lopez as a separated suburban Mom raising her son alone.

One day a handsome young man moves in next door and befriends her son and also develops an unhealthy obsession with her.

The film is your basic thrill ride with some jumps mixed in but is as predictable as they come and is safe mainstream fare.

Claire Peterson (Lopez) lives a cozy suburban existence with her socially awkward teenaged son Kevin and works as a literature teacher at the local high school. She lives a modest yet successful life.

Her estranged husband Garrett (John Corbett from My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Sex and the City fame) has cheated on her with his secretary.

One day a hunky twenty-year-old neighbor, Noah, moves in, takes a shine to Kevin and an attraction develops between Noah and Claire, despite him being half her age. The audience knows that there is something off about all of this, but the inevitable happens- a lonely Claire winds up in bed with Noah after a disastrous blind double date with her friend and confidant Vicky (the talented stage actress Kristin Chenoweth), who is also the vice-principal of Claire’s school.

The sex scenes are titillating and sensual with lots of skin.

I went into my viewing of this film not expecting an invigorating or thought-provoking film and was not disappointed in that regard.

The film is lightweight, predictable, and has a lifetime television movie feel to it. The acting is not great and the setups are seen a mile away. When Claire and Noah meet there is instant chemistry between them (duh! They are both great looking!), but there is also a sinister quality to Noah that the audience is aware of. There is no doubt he will be trouble in Claire’s life.

As we progress we become aware that Noah has a temper- another setup for things to come. If he feels wronged he strikes back. Once Claire realizes their passionate night was a mistake, Noah becomes obsessed with and then vengeful of Claire and everyone around her.

Certainly, the plot is filled with one implausibility after another and I could list silly nuances for hours, but here are a few that immediately come to mind- I do not for one second buy Jennifer Lopez as an intelligent, sophisticated, literature genius (despite the film hysterically having her wear nerdy glasses) nor do I buy the very good-looking Ryan Guzman (Noah) as a scholarly expert in literature either.

This is done to construct the plot with no believability whatsoever.

Throughout the film, Noah is magically able to do whatever he wants- somehow hacking into Claire’s computer, arranging for printouts of his liaison with her to fly endlessly from the ceilings, tamper with brakes, and seamlessly splice Claire’s voice into conversations.

The entire film is ridiculous and unbelievable, but, again, it is what I expected it to be.

The ending surprised me in that it ended abruptly with no cliffhanger or hint at a sequel as is common with thrillers of this sort. Perhaps the filmmakers had low expectations for audience turnout?

One jarring point to notice is that Jennifer Lopez, clearly Latina, is playing a character living in a suburban neighborhood, named Claire Peterson. Nowhere is her Latina heritage mentioned. The character is about as white as you can get.

A dumb, entertaining 90 minutes of escapism, The Boy Next Door is not a good film, but has some fun, thrilling moments, and is fun to kick back relax and take it for what it is. It is comparable to a McDonald’s hamburger- you know what you will get and expect nothing more.