London House

'THE ONES BELOW': Four Stars (Out of Five)

A British thriller flick, written and directed by David Farr. It stars Clemence Poesy, Stephen Campbell Moore, David Morrissey and Laura Birn. The film is about a couple, that's expecting a child, that gets into severe conflict with another couple, expecting their own child, that lives beneath them. The movie got good reviews from critics, and I enjoyed it as well.

Kate (Poesy) and Justin (Moore) are expecting their first child. A new couple, named Teresa (Birn) and Jon (Morrissey), just moved into the apartment below them; and they're expecting their first baby as well. The two couples meet, and have dinner together. Something goes horribly wrong, and the couples find themselves at great odds with each other.

The film is very slow-building, at first, and that really tried my patience; but once the story really gets going, the movie becomes very interesting. The characters are all really well written, and acted. The film is also nicely stylized, with creepy, and sometimes very unsettling, atmosphere. The twist at the end is not that shocking though (not nearly as much as the filmmakers appear to think), and (again) the first half of the movie is very slow-paced.

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Well Acted and Suspenseful Psychological Thriller that is held Down by an Obvious Ending that is Telegraphed in the Second Act. There is No Twist to that and once the Twist is No Longer a Twist, everything is Less than it could be.

The Ending is also Drawn Out like it Thinks You didn't see it coming. Oh My! Didn't Everyone? So the Third Act is a Ho Hum, get it Over with affair. It isn't a Bad Movie just one that is Short on Surprises and in a Psycho-Thriller that's a Death Sentence.

The Cast tries hard and the Emotional Dial is set at 10 most of the Time and it makes for some Engagement and Intrigue, but it really has Nowhere to Go after the Middle. The Movie is Shot with some Style, but the Familiarity with the Story is its Premature Problem.

Overall, Worth a Watch but Ultimately a Let Down for those accustomed to this Type of Thing. A Good Effort Overall, but Average or just Slightly Above.

"The Ones Below" is a decent enough little chamber piece on the perils of parenting, particularly if you suspect the neighbors downstairs covet your new-born baby. It marks the directorial debut of writer David Farr, (he wrote "The Night Manager" for television), and it's nicely done but in the end it's just too unpleasant to be entertaining. Basically a four-hander and well played by Clemence Poesy as the new mother convinced her neighbors are up to no good and by David Morrissey and Laura Birn as the neighbors, (personally I would have moved out five minutes after they moved in). It's let down only by Stephen Campbell Moore as Poesy's partner. Considering his outing in a similar role in the nasty little horror picture "The Children" some years back I would suggest Mr Campbell Moore get the snip sooner rather than later.

Character buildup. For most of the movie. Too bad they are so two dimensional it hurts, some drastic change of behavior is supposed to be intriguing when it's just a welcomed announcement that things are actually moving towards the ending, which is obvious right from the start.

Don't miss the blatant, obnoxious plot device near the middle, or you might actually get surprised by some detail at the end. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle even had that more subtly, in addition with a decently paced script. Which is another crappy movie, but fairly entertaining for its time.

Acting isn't bad, until daddy throws his fit, but the plot is bad, predictable, and dare I say, unimaginative. A TV movie from the 80's.

I'm a big fan of cult classics such as Rosemary's Baby so when I saw the trailer to this movie, I was intrigued.

The first third of the movie was quite well done; the mood was creepy and weird as intended, the actors were marvelous; the suspense really drew me in and I wanted to find out how this movie would pan out.

Then it got reeeeeally slow. It dragged on and the repetitiveness made it very hard to push through. Midway through, the mystery of the plot has already become quite obvious and predictable as it has been constantly spelled out to us over and over again. So by the end, the only way to save this movie is for an unexpected twist instead of the predictable ending. But no twist. Just a creepy, linear story with ok acting.