I Am Watching You (TV Movie 2016) Poster

(2016 TV Movie)

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6/10
**1/2
edwagreen8 October 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The motto for this story is keep your Venetian blinds closed and just mind your business. As a young writer, Ms. Zima didn't follow the rule and gets tangled up with the guy next door. Before long, she sure can't annoy this guy from next door. She should have been singing the old song: "How Can I ignore the GUY next door?

Of course, this is in 2016 so before long the two are in the sack and our guy becomes aggressive and the relationship rapidly falls apart with the necessary pitfalls.

Zima is not for this part. Yes, when she is doing her writing and the affair gives her inspiration, her performance is good. Her romantic liaisons with the suave guy are ridiculous. She is way out of her league and may need the nanny to guide her through.
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4/10
One real moment
nogodnomasters2 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Nora Nichols (Madeline Zima) writes on-line e-books, trash romance novels. She has been watching the hard body neighbor Lucas Wheeler (Brian Ames) like a Carly Rae Jepsen tune, "Call Me Maybe." Now Lucas also has his eye on Nora. Twenty minutes into the film Nora is using Lucas to help her with her writing blocks. Lucas wants something more...

This is a Lifetime US TV-14 film so you know the limitations. There is groping, Zima in bra and panties, and implied sex. Nora has a circle of friends who make a living with on-line blogs and e-books, which I wouldn't recommend as job, but a hobby.
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5/10
Another Successful Outing For Brian Ames...
vnssyndrome8916 August 2023
I AM WATCHING YOU (TV Movie 2016)

BASIC PLOT: Nora Nichols (Madeline Zima) is an old fashioned girl, who's trying to find her inner vixen. She's always been a homebody, which is why she broke up with her last boyfriend. She's decided to be more adventurous, maybe even sow some wild oats. Nora has had some success in her life, writing online romance novels, but now she needs inspiration. She's can see right into her hot neighbor's bedroom window, and she often fantasizes about what she sees. Her online books are popular, and have attracted the attention of a book publisher (Lesley-Anne Down). They agree to publish her book, if she can come up with new material, and fast. She agrees, but needs some titillation. One night, her neighbor gets "locked out" of his apartment, and the flirtation begins. His name is Lucas Wheeler (Brian Ames), he's a photographer, and even more gorgeous up close. Soon, Lucas is making every one of her fantasies come true. Her book is writing itself, and she's finally coming out of her shell. She's made it clear to Lucas, she's not looking for anything serious, and he says he understands. But he seems to becoming more and more possessive, as their relationship progresses. Then one night, Nora sees a photo of a missing woman in Lucas's dark room. She's probably just one of his models, but Nora decides to slow things down. She has a tight deadline, and Lucas can't seem to take no for an answer. After she's comes home one night and finds him in her apartment, she decides enough is enough. She realizes, maybe too late, the only thing she knows about him is his exquisite anatomy. Can Nora untangle herself from this dangerous and passionate affair, before it consumes them both?

WHAT WORKS: *On the one hand, it's good to see an accurate portrayal of female sexuality, and everything Nora says about how we've modified female sexuality to be in line with men's wants and needs, is true. However, this movie is a good example, of women's preconceptions of what men's sexuality is supposed to be. Women tend to believe all men would be happy with a purely sexual relationship, and feelings wouldn't be involved. That's not true for men or women, who have a normal love map. If you spend lots of intimate time with another person, of either gender, you're likely to have some feelings, even if it's not love. No one should use anyone just for sex, it's wrong on a million levels, mostly to yourself.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *Why would you put on headphones, and leave your phone where you can't see it, when you're expecting company? That makes no sense, especially since she lives in a locked building.

*I never understand why women in movies and TV, throw flowers away from men they don't like. Who cares!? It's not the flowers fault! They are still beautiful, so why not keep them? It's a stupid plot device, I think should be abandoned. It would have worked better if he'd given her a framed picture of the two of them, he is a photographer after all. She could have thrown that out, and made the same point.

*Who is the guy they are getting to do the voice over on these trailers? Without his mismatched voice, this movie would have a decent trailer. But, unfortunately, he ruins it! He should be announcing cooking shows, NOT thrillers!

*Stupid cover art!

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I would definitely recommend this movie to fans of TV thrillers, and to women in general. It is a made-for-tv film, so it has limitations, but it is a fun ride.

CLOSING NOTES: *This is a Made-For-TV movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.
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3/10
She's out of his league
phd_travel11 January 2019
A writer starts a relationship with a neighbour she has been spying on. Madeline Zima from the Nanny is all grown up and while she is sweet she is not sexy enough for this type of romantic obsession movie. Can't buy the guy being so into her. She's a bit out of his league.

Don't think Lifetime should do this kind of movie.
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3/10
Crazy1
sheimrp4 November 2019
Nora, the writer, was very confused. She wanted to live out the fictional world in real time. Lucas, a photographer, was the unfortunate victim in the case. He was completely misused. He was like a helpless puppy looking for someone to love. Nora doesn't really communicate well and simply uses and discards her neighbor, Lucas and his feelings. This movie, in my opinion, is very weak in its plot.
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Too bad she grew up.
geoffox-766-41846723 September 2016
Remember Madeline Zima from HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE and THE NANNY as a wonderful child actress. She was cute then and worked well in her roles. In some case child actors grow into adult roles quite well and some don't. In this case Zima didn't. She seems stiff and without energy in her acting. It is also hard to accept that the incredible Brian Ames could ever want to be with her at all. This handsome actor goes crazy over her. She starts it all by being a peeping Tom watching his nightly trysts from her window. Then he goes after her, which is hard to believe as she in not a looker for his kind of looks. So she snoops into his life, including breaking into his apartment and at one time when he is in her apartment she accuses him of breaking in. Duh. It just doesn't work in my book. Zima is a nice looking girl but not adult enough to play this kind of a role. And Ames is certainly adult and sexy enough for any role in my book. Too bad.
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2/10
Comicly Melodramatic
JTSnowcone5630 June 2018
Not worth watching if you're looking for an actual thriller. However, if you're looking for a melodramatic film to inspire chuckles, this is it.
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1/10
Couldn't finish it
tlharrison-5954620 July 2021
It was just so bad.. plus so much of what the movie tells us in the first five minutes tells us what's gonna happen later.
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2/10
Critical Technical Difficulty
noahreed-3383428 August 2020
In the beginning, she is looking at the man from a window that appears to face outside of her apartment. To me, the view from the window is furthest from the front door facing outwards. Why the heck does the guy live in front of her door earlier in the hallway? Other than that, the main character is too hazy for my taste. I didn't like costumes / wardrobe. But, the character, Nora, does use the word undulate very tastefully and I enjoyed that. That's why I gave it a 2. Such a critical perspective error makes the movie feel impossible, and other elements from this movie don't help it's believability.
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2/10
Typical LMN female stereotyping and some softcore porn
hoops-534361 July 2022
Typical female stereotype on LMN- woman falls for (and falls in bed with) a guy she doesn't know and doesn't know anything about. The plot is so weak and they couldn't fill the time slot with plot, so they threw in some softcore porn to try to keep our attention. Doesn't work- at least not for me.

Best line in the movie is when she said "I'll be writing constantly until the end of the month," while she was in bed with him and continued to go back.

Nobody ever works in these movies anyway, oh well.

They could have cast the lead a whole lot better. She is NOT a good actor. A whole lot of possibilities flood my mind- at the top would be Lorynn York. This is just a sorry excuse for a 'thriller.' Two stars is a stretch.
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8/10
The Boy Next Door
lavatch6 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This Harlequin Romance-style film focuses on Nora, the writer of a romantic blog that grows in popularity to the extent that she is offered a book contract with a major publisher. For her book, Nora conducts a laboratory experiment in a tryst with her neighbor, a hulk named Lucas. But the experiment turns into a nightmare when Lucas becomes overly attached to Nora, stalking her and photographing her in compromising positions. For Lucas, the romantic entanglement was on a different plane than that of Nora.

The filmmakers draw on the "rear window" motif made famous by Alfred Hitchcock. Both Lucas and Nora are able to peer into each other's apartments through their windows. The voyeuristic theme is developed extensively throughout the film, even with the peephole in the door where the characters spy on each other.

Nora's blog character is named Cassandra, who is a fictionalized version of herself. In classical Greek mythology, Cassandra had the gift of prophecy, but no one believed her. In the case of Nora, it becomes clear that she is blind to the future possibilities of her disastrous encounter with Lucas. It takes Nora's best friends, Scotty and Karen, to remind Nora that she is playing with fire.

The essence of Nora's new novel is what she describes as "the real moment" of sensuality that is at the heart of her own awakening through her contact with Lucas. She pitches her novel to the publisher on the basis of how women are entitled to a fantasy life just like men. But Scotty and Karen recognize that Nora does not even know anything about Lucas, while drawing upon him for the "sharp obsession" that is the title of her book.

Nora's publisher identified "the fine line between obsession and inspiration" that she extracted from Nora's writing. But, from the perspective of Lucas, the inspiration of Nora was translated into his obsession with fateful consequences for the boy next door.
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10/10
Brian Ames
asrichmond24 March 2018
I've never seen Brian Ames before and he is so gorgeous! Great movie too. Good story line.
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Nothing feministic/empoyerment/Me Too about this trash!
haroot_azarian21 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
So Nora is a softcore porn trash blogger. She spies on her sexy neighbor Lucas, and after some flirtations and finally at the suggestion of her friends. Karen and Scotty while out for drinks with them (some bloody friends ha) she goes back and screws her brains out with Lucas. Suddenly her writer's block is gone and she begins to put down her own sexual experiences which include bondage (at the suggestion of the publisher Leslie Anne Down) she continues to write.

She tells Lucas she needs a break because she has a deadline to finish the book. But it seems not getting screwed brings her writer's block back. So one night feeling frustrated and horny she goes back to Lucas for some more, to help her continue her writing.

That is as far as I will go with the synopsis. This was an epic disaster come trash of a movie. The crap she came out with in her meeting with the publisher was nothing like that in her real life. She wasn't empowered or self-controlled or whatever BS she told the publisher about her vision of a woman. She was a needy horny insecure crappy writer who needed to use sex for inspiration to write.

Anyway to cut a long story short, I both sympathised with Lucas and at the same time hated him for being an obsessive nutjob. Then again, Nora's exploitation of Lucas for her own ends must have had something to do with making him crazy.

So, no I did not see this as a feministic Me Too job. It was pure sexual trash and thank God it was TV-14. I like Madeline and her sister Vanessa who incidentally sounds a lot like her sis Madeline. But this movie was a total disaster in my opinion!
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