Love Next Door

I saw this movie with zero previous knowledge and it really impressed me. Two neighbouring families in New Jersey (in an area known as The Oranges because the cities there all have the term Orange in their names -- hence the title of the movie) live harmonically next to each other. The children have grown up together, the men go jogging together, they celebrate the holidays together. They have normal problems -- one daughter doesn't seem to get on with her life, the other plans to marry a deadbeat, then breaks up with him because she caught him cheating on her. Her meddling mother wants to hook her up with their neighbour's A-student son, but the wayward daughter opts for his dad (played by Hugh Laurie) instead. Actually, a plausible choice at that point. She's fed up with college boys, needs stability, and they do care for each other. Her new manfriend feels rejuvenated since his marriage has been in the doldrums for some time. After the unlikely lovebirds have kissed, and even before their first date in a no-tell-motel, their budding affair is exposed. And a lot of hell breaks loose.

The movie plays out a conundrum scenario. On the one hand, there's nothing wrong with an loving relationship between two consenting adults, right? Nina, the girl hooking up with her family guy neighbour, says it herself in one scene: "But what if there was no wrong? ... There is no wrong." On the other hand, the very proximity between all persons involved turns against the love affair between Nina and David (family guy). David's daughter feels this most acutely: she doesn't want to become a nagging moralizer for family values. On the other hand, she doesn't want her former schoolmate Nina to become her new stepmom either.

I find this a great movie about an interesting moral dilemma.

This movie is categorized as comedy, drama and romance and fails in all three IMHO. Let's start with the tag lines: there's no sex whatsoever and it's about to get juicy but it never does, reckon that according to your preferences. As a comedy it delivers few smiles and even less laughs. The drama side goes a bit better if nothing else for the ever worried look of David (Laurie), a middle aged husband who could be attractive only to girls in desperate need of a father figure.Unfortunately the drama part is also predictable and without sparkles.Finally the romance: very little dwelled upon and without any surprise. If i haven't been harsher in voting it's because of the actors' effort, in particular Alia Shawkat (perfect in the role of the incredibly obnoxious Vanessa) and Adam Brody (my favorite scene is when he's back from China and discovers the "scandal")

I'm not giving The Oranges an amazing rating out of 10, but it was fine for a Sunday afternoon movie binge. A lot of people are bagging out the premise, but I actually consider it to be a new take on the usual Hollywood BS of an older guy and a younger girl in a relationship. The story typically goes "Older guy falls in love with younger woman and vice versa, and no one really seems to give a crap about the age difference and they live happily ever after". Fortunately, this one is a little more realistic - "Older guy falls in love with younger woman and vice versa, and everyone reacts as you would expect them to - i.e. they freak the s*** out".

It's an enjoyable film that is worth the hour and a half.

Says "comedy, drama, romance" in the header, but I'm not sure it was really any of them. Wasn't funny enough at any point, the "romance" was semi-sordid and very awkward and led to the "drama" which was mostly contrived and uncomfortable. All that said, it wasn't horrible, whatever it was. It just didn't seem to know.

It's an unimaginable situation, so there really aren't many templates to work off. "Blame it on Rio" walks a similar path, and does it with far more laughs and absurdities... but it's borderline gross... at least in "The Oranges," the girl at the center of the crises is 24 and not 16... and the actress involved here CAN actually act. In both films, the whole midlife crisis situation is (of course) hopeless, ill-advised, and too destructive to even remotely work... at least "Rio" sees itself as a total farce, while this film takes itself too seriously.

So yeah, an unfocused and awkward drama, that seems to want to be more. That's about right. I'll round my 5.5 up to a 6 because it has a great cast... but if you miss this one, you needn't lose any sleep over it.

What you have to be clear about, is that this movie is about perception. How do people perceive things, how does society judge and how do we know what is wrong and right? While I admit that especially later on, this movie lacks a bit of attachment to some of the characters, in never feels like they are cardboard cut outs. And while it might seem that passion is missing, just acting wild is not the definition of going through things. Sometimes a more subtle approach can work better.

If you feel, the movie should have been more aggressive in that case, that is a fair point, but you either accept that it didn't take that route or you are condemning it to lose from the start. The actors are incredible, but reading their names alone should tell you that. Their interactions and connections seem to work perfectly. Even the ending is nicely done, although as always it won't satisfy everybody of course. A family drama/comedy that is by definition not a family film, but a look into guilt, responsibilities, growing up and (as mentioned above) perception