Quiete the opposite of 'To Much To Soon'

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2010)

First of all this movie must be defended from resembling Hitchcocks "Rear Window" to much. Seriously, can a main character no longer spy on his neighbors and find a killer among them? Ah, but then you didn't like Arlington Road too and certainly had no taste for Fright Night either. Those comparisons are worthless. A movie must be judged on it own grounds.
And unfortunately i can give only 5 stars. The first 45 minutes of this film left me rather bored. It should have been kept more tight and simple. A short example. Our young hero downloads itunes and plays the xbox. Another scene shows him not getting access to these accounts on the internet. In a later scene he is on the telephone with his friend who is obviously surrounded by some beautiful girls. Yet another scene has the hero realizing and complaining to his mother that she cancelled the accounts mentioned above - and mom cuts the electric cable of his television. Now imagine this: Boys plays Xbos and downloads itunes while on the telephone with his friend, suddenly his accounts go down, in contrast he hears his friends fun with the girls "showing" (audio) up - "hold it" says our hero "Mom, did you kill me accounts?" - she did - Hero snaps back, goes back on the phone, mom blahs something of disrespect, mom cuts electric cable, boyfriends hangs up prematurely. Mom smiles, son looks lost - end of scene. Condensed in this manner it would not only have cost the production less money, it would have also made for a more dynamic experience which would have told us something: Our hero is literally cut off from the outside and all things fun ... until the new neighbor girl shows up.
Another problem of the story is the death of our heroes father. It has no psychological effect on him whatsoever. It's a mere device to let him hit his teacher. It's a lost opportunity too. A father could have stood for protection now lost. A father cold have meant oppression now free from. Both oppression and the need of protection could have been easily linked with the theme of a serial killer story.
Also i would have wished for more screen time of the killer and our hero. It's not my responsibility to come up with even more ideas but there could have been more going on as a cat and mouse play than we've seen. After, all this isn't Rear Window, and killer, hero and heroine are meeting face to face far earlier than only at the end.