A visit from "The Neighbor"

They say good fences make good neighbors, but sometimes fences can't keep our eyes and our curiosity from looking through the slots. 

Mike (William Fichtner) is your typical middle-age man with a wife Lisa (Jean Louisa Kelly) who is often distant keeping herself busy with her career while he works at home writing technical books, a simple dull life, until a young newlywed couple moves in next door. Jenna (Jessica McNamee) and Scott (Michael Rosenbaum) are a young twenty-something couple who seem nice and Mike and Jenna begin socializing regularly. Yet as time passes, Mike begins to see the cracks in the relationship and suspects Scott is abusive towards Jenna. While not having any proof, he keeps his eyes and ears open while developing a crush on Jenna driving his eagerness to protect her and carries the risk of losing everything he has.

This was one of those films that comes off as having a lot of contradictions. For example, is Mike trying to be the good guy and save someone from domestic abuse, or has his crush developed into an obsession that he's looking for his moment to be the knight in shining armor? Overall, this was a film of mixed feelings. While the portrayal of someone observing abuse and what we might do in the situation gives the story realism, the story moves slowly with very little drama and action and the character of Mike comes off as having a bland personality compared to the other characters around him making him hard to like. Yet the quality of having the story have some interpretation as far as Mike's drive to protect Jenna is the only reason why I feel it deserves two and a half G.M.Stars and not less. So the next time you want to look over the neighbor's fence, make sure you're not getting more than you bargained for.

⭐⭐½