The Good Neighbour (2011) User Reviews

A little masterpiece

[cinthia933 · 8/10 · 24 February 2013]

I saw this film at the Kino! festival at MoMa. I truly enjoyed this little masterpiece about two neighbors and their secret which sends them down a spiral of psychological obsession. Instead of relying on cheap tricks and scares, the narrative unfolds at a very somber tone which gives the film a very natural feel. Each of the characters is carefully crafted and feels real.

Especially the character of Robert could be straight out of a Hitchcock movie. Friendly in the beginning, his role soon takes a turn for the darker when things don't go as he planned and David tries to escape his grip. When forced into a corner this seemingly good neighbor becomes the protagonists worst nightmare. Disturbing images and a great direction complete the picture into a coherent whole. The director skillfully plays with the genre boundaries of drama and thus 'The Good Neighbor' keeps you in your seats from the very first minute to the unbearingly thrilling end.

After watching this film you really start to wonder which one of your own neighbors has a little bit of Robert within them.

A strong thriller with the expected standout performance

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 9 October 2017]

"Unter Nachbarn" (don't mistake it for an entry from the Jaenicke family comedy film series) or "The Good Neighbour" is a German 1.5-hour film from 2011, so this one had its 5th anniversary last year. It is the second most known work by writer and director Stephan Rick, but in my opinion it is definitely superior to his more known and more recent Bleibtreu film. As for this one we have here, the central character is played by Maxim Mehmet and I must say he really is a fairly forgettable actor and this film here is more evidence for that. Then again, he may be in the center of it all, but his material is mediocre too and so is his performance. The star in here is definitely Charly Hübner and if you check out the awards attention, you will realize this too. He plays a creepy neighbor, who becomes more and more harmful to the protagonist('s life) the longer the film goes.

Mehmet really plays the most normal everyday life character whose entire life is changed through a tragic accident one night and the one person who knows about it is certainly not helping things either in the long run. The take on his homosexuality, the latter's, is interesting too. Anyway, the film's biggest weakness is maybe that it feels slightly unrealistic at times. It's just too much. The one he is meeting at the bar is the one he kills. The fact that he gets assigned to that particular accident. The romance with the victim's sister. The neighbor's insanity etc., it is definitely on the edge. But the core story itself plus Hügner's commanding portrayal turn this into a pretty strong thriller. An atmospheric one too and it is a genre where we aren't blessed too often with class here in Germany. Another reason why you want to see it, go check it out. One final note on Schmidt-Schaller, she was also okay overall, but it's clear that this film is never hers.

If you like bad, predictible and boring movies, this is for You

[kozak-75181 · 2/10 · 24 April 2022]

A storyline is pretty easy. You can predict absolutely everythink after 2 minutes. Motive is known and there is a lot of better psychological films than this. Maybe If You have problems with insomia that creature can help.