I must admit, I rented this only because I'm a fan of David Andrews (JAG, Terminator 3, Cherry 2000, CSI) who plays the father of the Braverton family. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and ended up buying a copy.
The premise is that an ordinary family's life is suddenly terrorized when their psychologically tormented neighbour (played by Charlie Sheen) finally "cracks". I found the movie quite good, because it WAS a basically ordinary family. I could see my own family in their day-to-day goings on. So many Hollywood movies are spoiled for me by characters who live ridiculously opulent and overly quaint suburban lives. These characters didn't have an enormous swimming pool or luxurious cars or a magnificent house on the ocean - they're NORMAL people....and therein lies the suspense (at least for me). I could see the whole scenario ACTUALLY playing out in a real family's life. The reactions of the characters and the police were realistic and believable. No running around in silly lingerie, no going "Rambo" - real reactions.
Truthfully, the weak point for me was Sheen. He was obviously trying to "break the mold" and was admittedly quite successful - the character was scary in a "smouldering" way. A burning ember. I just couldn't stop thinking of him as....well...Charlie Sheen - and that really wasn't his fault.
This is definitely worth a watch - the dynamic between Mare Winningham and my man David Andrews (who also worked together in "Wyatt Earp") was genuine and gave the whole scenario the needed authenticity.
:) AT
The premise is that an ordinary family's life is suddenly terrorized when their psychologically tormented neighbour (played by Charlie Sheen) finally "cracks". I found the movie quite good, because it WAS a basically ordinary family. I could see my own family in their day-to-day goings on. So many Hollywood movies are spoiled for me by characters who live ridiculously opulent and overly quaint suburban lives. These characters didn't have an enormous swimming pool or luxurious cars or a magnificent house on the ocean - they're NORMAL people....and therein lies the suspense (at least for me). I could see the whole scenario ACTUALLY playing out in a real family's life. The reactions of the characters and the police were realistic and believable. No running around in silly lingerie, no going "Rambo" - real reactions.
Truthfully, the weak point for me was Sheen. He was obviously trying to "break the mold" and was admittedly quite successful - the character was scary in a "smouldering" way. A burning ember. I just couldn't stop thinking of him as....well...Charlie Sheen - and that really wasn't his fault.
This is definitely worth a watch - the dynamic between Mare Winningham and my man David Andrews (who also worked together in "Wyatt Earp") was genuine and gave the whole scenario the needed authenticity.
:) AT