The Boy Next Door

Plot synopsis:
Claire Peterson (Jennifer Lopez) separates from her husband Garrett (John Corbett), after he was caught cheating with his secretary. Her colleague and best friend Vicky Lansing (Kristin Chenoweth) urges Claire to divorce. Claire meets 19-year-old Noah Sandborn (Ryan Guzman)—the orphaned nephew of her wheelchair-bound neighbor—who has just moved in next door. Noah befriends Kevin (Ian Nelson), Claire's teenage son, and begins attending his school, where Claire teaches English literature. Noah is drawn to Claire, expressing love for Homer's Iliad. With Kevin and Garrett away on a fishing trip, Claire watches a naked Noah in his room through her window.
Claire goes on a miserable double date with Vicky and her boyfriend Ethan (Travis Schuldt), and his ill-mannered friend Benny (Bailey Chase). With Kevin still away, Noah calls Claire over to help him cook. She ends up having dinner with him, during which he unashamedly flirts with her. Despite Claire's hesitation, she lets Noah seduce her and they have sex. Claire tells Noah that she regrets their night together, causing him to punch a wall in rage. The school year begins, with Noah joining an uncomfortable Claire's class after hacking into her computer, making it appear as if she had requested this. Noah manipulates Kevin into hating his father, causing him to lash out at Garrett. Later, Kevin overexerts himself at the gymnasium and goes into shock; Noah saves his life by injecting him with Kevin's EpiPen. Claire receives flowers from Noah, and she confronts him about this. Noah witnesses Claire and Garrett on a date together, which escalates his obsession with her.
After an incident where Noah—in defense of Kevin—slams a bully's (Adam Hicks) head into a locker repeatedly, Vicky (who is vice principal at the school) discovers that Noah was kicked out of his previous school for disorderly conduct. After an encounter where Noah insults her, she expels him. During the fall fling, Claire goes to investigate a leak in the boys' bathroom, where she instead sees the words "I fucked Claire Peterson" written on the wall before Noah emerges. He attempts to force himself on her, but she fends him off and demands that he stay away from her and Kevin. The following day, Noah leaves a printer running in Claire's classroom, with images of them sleeping together scattered everywhere. When Garrett's car brakes fail to work, he and Kevin are nearly involved in an accident. Noah blackmails Claire; telling her that he has a tape of them having sex, which he will relinquish to her if she continues sleeping with him. She refuses, and organizes a plot with Vicky to steer Noah away from his house. Claire breaks into Noah's house and sees hundreds of images of herself in his basement. She finds his laptop, deleting their sex tape, and also sees images of car brakes, implying that he rigged Garrett's brakes. She meets with Detective Chou (François Chau), who informs her that Noah's father was killed after swerving into a truck with his minivan.
Noah binds and gags Vicky with duct tape and uses an audio recording of her voice to lure Claire to her house. When Claire arrives, she discovers Vicky's dead body, with her throat having been slashed by Noah. A horrified Claire contacts the police, but runs into Noah again. He reveals to her that his mother killed herself after his father cheated on her, so he rigged the brakes of his father's minivan, killing him and his mistress. Noah takes Claire to a barn house where he has kidnapped Garrett and Kevin, threatening to kill them unless Claire stays with him. A violent altercation occurs as Claire attempts to free them. Noah pours kerosene around the barn, causing it to ignite in flames. Garrett, having freed himself, attempts to choke Noah with a rope, prompting Noah to shoot him in the chest. Claire stabs Noah's eye with Kevin's EpiPen. When Noah removes the EpiPen from his eye and blindly attempts to strangle Claire to death, she then jams her thumb into the same damaged eye to blind him further, much to Noah's agony and he strikes her across the face. When he later holds Kevin at gunpoint, she pulls a switch that drops an engine on Noah, killing him. Claire and Kevin then help a wounded Garrett exit the burning barn house as the police arrive. Garrett is put in an ambulance. A paramedic says that Garrett will be fine. Claire and Kevin ride in the ambulance with him and Claire tells Garrett that he's gonna be okay and promises him after he arrives at the hospital, "we're going home.", hinting at a family reconciliation between Claire, Garrett and Kevin. As all three family members remain together in the ambulance truck, the ambulance then drives off into road to the hospital and the camera pans out to the moon hovering in the night sky.

Tags: suspenseful, murder

Review:
A paint-by-numbers made-for-TV movie.
This movie is a low budget made-for-TV movie produced by the Canadian movie networks.
I've seen it commercial-free on The Movie Network, but it nevertheless had regular fade-to-blacks intended for commercial breaks.It is a generic movie of the week designed for woman cable channels, without any discernible effort or deviation from the formula.
You probably have already seen this story a dozen times on cable.Sara is a beautiful and single novelist who lives an ideal life in an ideal television small town.
A murder happens and she becomes the prime suspect.
As per formula, the Sara will try to solve the mystery, and will be lightly threatened by someone who wants her off their track.Sara will of course struggle to convince the good looking and well meaning policeman who's investigating the case that she's in danger and being framed.As you must know from the formula, the actual murderer will turn out to be either a friend, the other woman, or the policeman, and you do not really get the clues to solve this mystery.
It just sort of happens.Everything is per formula.
Everyone is middle class, single, beautiful, and a little stiff.
Everything is clean and new.
There is no violence or serious conflict, and in this case no romance.
This movie will not offend or interest anyone, it is strictly a time filler for cable..
The Dina Meyer show.
Watch Dina Meyer walk.Watch Dina Meyer work on her laptop.Watch Dina Meyer talk on the phone.Watch Dina Meyer driving.Watch Dina Meyer crossing the street.Watch Dina Meyer sneaking into a house.Watch Dina Meyer talking to police officer.Watch Dina Meyer look like Michelle Pfeiffer.Watching Dina Meyer is basically what this film is.
It had such a low budget that the only thing you see is a solo Dina Meyer doing mundane things.
It's basically a one woman show.On one hand, it's the pits but on the other hand, if you're a fan of Dina Meyer you'll LOVE this film.
It actually sorta fascinating on how the writers and director thought up this film vis a vis the film's budget.
It sorta works as a minimalistic experience..
Dina Meyer make this worth watching.
Dina Meyers makes this mystery watchable.
A writer moves to a small town and rents a house.
Next door a younger man not that much younger as the title would suggest becomes an object of interest for the writer.
The guy is murdered and she becomes a suspect.
The cops seem to think it was her.
It's fairly diverting to see how she finds out who the real killer is.
Dina is beautiful and a convincing actress..
Do women really Like This Junk?.
I generously gave this 'film' a '2' because the acting was fair.
The  lead has to be a knockout and a mystery writer; so many women are  successful today.
And...they are often novelists.
A person suspected of murder, especially one who is wealthy and drives  a BMW, rents a lovely house in a small town, would hire a defense  attorney ASAP.
She wouldn't go around risking her beautiful persona and  leering at much younger men.
Is she just another cougar?
Is this what  middle-aged women do today?
Is sex all they care about?
I guess that's  the modern woman.
All of us sensitive men are just 'love meat,' a quote from a Neil  Diamond concert before he sang 'Play Me.' And, he was serious.
Then, we have the obligatory black in the film, a car dealer.
Can we  ever have a film or TV ad without a black person?
Blacks are only 12%  of the U.S. population but they comprise about 90% of the commercials  and movie roles.
The lead actress, Dina Meyer, is very attractive, but she belongs in  porn films on the internet.
In fact, there is a synopsis on Time Warner  that states 'nudity.' I never saw any nudity, but I DID miss the first  19 minutes of the film.
Why did I bother watching the entire film?
I was waiting for Dina to  undress and get naked, like the synopsis read.
Otherwise, it had no  redeeming social value..
not well written.
San Francisco novelist Sara Wylde (Dina Meyer) is having writer's block.
She rents a lakehouse in the country and is taken with young Michael Ellory next door.
There's the nosy house owner Marie, the bookstore couple, and the coffee house guy.
Michael's father Edward is a rich and powerful man.
Michael turns up dead after a date with the mayor's wife Nicole Warner.
The police suspects Sara who had been spying on Michael.The guy is not really a boy.
She's older than him but there is nothing scandalous.
He looks like he's in his 20's and with no great charisma.
I was actually quite relieved when he turns up dead.
It could be an interesting murder mystery but the characters are not well-written.
The cops are too dense.
Sara is not that quick either.
One would expect better from a mystery murder writer who thinks about police crime dramas all day long.
Cory Monteith has a minor role.
This is not that good..
Novelist looking for Insperation finds murder..
Found the movie to be very satisfactory.
I personally found Dina Meyer to be very good actress and I have never seen her before.
I actually rented the movie because of Cory Monteith.
The movie is basically about a novelist that moves to a small town to find inspiration for her next book.
Dina Meyer's character had just been divorced and needed some time to concentrate on her book only.
Her character gets inspiration for her books by taking pictures of every day life.
Her next door neighbor turns out to be a billionaires son and ends up getting murdered.
Dina Meyer's character is framed for the murder because she was the next door neighbor and was always taking pictures of him for her research.
In the long and skinny of it all Dina Meyer's character has to figure out who is framing her for the murder.
The ending isn't exactly what you would expect but also not the worst ending either.
This is definitely a movie for you hopeless romantics and crime solving fans..
in ref.
to quil's review.
When I decide to watch movies on Lifetime, I don't expect Oscar quality directing, writing or acting.
I don't know who this Quil guy is, but he continually puts down women over 30...check his reviews.
Negative, cruel and mean.
This movie isn't the best, nor is it the worst.
It is VERY frustrating because the main character is trying to defend herself through out to prove her innocence.
Legally, the cops couldn't do half the things they did without alerting her and providing search warrants etc.
Ridiculous.
What, the only person who could possibly kill the guy is a woman who is new in town, that happens to write novels, including murder mysteries?
Geez.
At least with the character in Basic Instinct they had a bunch of circumstantial evidence to bring her in for questioning.
This poor girl barely knew the kid.
I suggest if you are ever looking for an absolutely perfect movie to watch.....don't choose Lifetime or generic TV channels.
Rent or purchase movies that have been on the big screen, with fantastic writers/actors/directors or indie films etc.
But, if you want a snotty, jerky, and obnoxious review from a guy who pretty much hates everything, read Quil's .....he has plenty of those.
And, I didn't think Dina's rear end was wide nor is she ugly or past her prime.
Get over yourself Quil.
Maybe you can start writing screenplays and can then choose the actors/actresses you would like to see in your own movies.
I would love to review YOUR work.