The Man Next Door

Though mid budget, a tad overly dramatic, and only one glitch in the rapist's reactions acting-wise, this is a bold and pretty well put together little film. It is no holds barred on the harsh and violent subjects, with characters going nose-to-nose on rarely discussed happenings in sex crimes. Bravo, I say - glad I watched it.

A good premise ruined by overblown melodramatics and acting (with the exception of Michael Ontkean, who plays the rapist with much dignity). I know the movie is in trouble, when the only character I can sympathize with is the bad guy!. This is a good story that deserved a more sober, less sensationalized treatment.

Yes overdone low budget but slightly courageous almost effective if not for such exaggerated "not in my neighborhood" intolerance. The 2 -3 main characters were pretty decent (believable) but the 'extras' or whomever they gathered up to play the town members went into mob mentality too soon and stayed at a rabid volume that drowned out any likable qualities - in any of them - that might have induced some empathy. Yes nobody's surprised that a crime with such high odds for reoffending scares a community into frantic vigilantism but usually there's a few who see a paid debt to society as a fresh start. But most don't it's both unfair and understandable. This is a topic that might warrant a serious attempt at portraying the human dilemma.....this was watchable.

I started watching this film just to see how realistic the story was as I am particularly interested in films based on true stories. At first the story was quite predictable with a man who had served time for rape coming to settle in a small town because his brother was there. Once people came to know his background, it took very little time before things got complex and very unpleasant.

Soon I realised the story was as much about his parole officer and her doubts about him as it was about his own struggle. I began to get more interested when he attended a counselling group and I got some insight into how such groups were run--it was quite confrontational. My impression of this story is it could have been written by someone familiar with the challenges of being a parole officer, especially in a small town. As such I found it quite interesting and realistic.

Michael Ontkean is a relatively good looking fellow. In order to make him believable as a creepy serial rapist type he's given a nasty looking old pick-up truck, the obligatory paint-on tattoo, and (kudos to the make up department) a fairly convincing molar/incisor rot job.

Released from prison, Ontkean's character, Eli, takes up residence in a tired little backwater burg that somehow fails to warrant the residents' chest-beating claims that their town is too good for this slimeball.

Pamela Reed is the one bright spot, working wonders with the thin script in her role as a parole officer using every trick in her bag to bully Ontkean back onto the straight and narrow. Things go well for Eli for a while, but upon learning of his past, the townspeople rally as a slightly-less-believable-than-Clinton-on-the-witness-stand lynch squad.

An error in judgement, or editing, or evidence that director Lamont Johnson simply didn't give a rat's butt how this movie looked, shone through in the requisite night time "angry" mob shot. Inexplicably, he focused the cameras on the extras, blatantly occupied in helpfully waving wide-beam flashing lights up, down and across Ontkean's profile in a painstakingly orchestrated manner. Not enough money in the budget to hire crew members to handle lighting effects perhaps?

The director shouts 'Action' and we see (egregiously half-hearted) "angry" mobs waving really silly looking protest signs, looking for the most part terribly confused. (The town's population is presented as 27,000 and they're all reportedly steaming mad. Watch for the same 30 extras who comprise every thin little "angry" mob scene.)

Other than Reed, and a stellar cameo by the actress portraying the cashier Ontkean may have raped after his release, there's a generally lackadaisical feel to all the performances. Ontkean himself looked positively bemused during the cliche-ridden group therapy scenes. "She wanted it," says one good-old-fellow-rapist-boy to another with a merry bootlicking grin. Scowling and leering on cue Ontkean still comes off about as menacing as Bambi's mother.

Then, suddenly, it's all over. The serial rapist is 'rescued' from the wrath of the 'really mean' townspeople and put into a minimum security halfway house for his own protection.

Meaning what? 'All we are saying, is give rapists a chance'?

The message that audiences are more likely to come away with may well be more along the lines of: 'Everyone involved with this project had mortgages and bills to pay and the entire contingent signed on not because they wanted to make a good movie, but because their agents apparently couldn't get them a better gig for summer hiatus.'