The Perfect Neighbor

Let the foolish people who were dumb enough to rent this give you a piece of advice, go to bed early and skip this extremely predictable movie that apparently ran out of film at the end. This "film" was shallow and appeared to be dragged along in an effort to fit it all in within the allotted time. The best part of the entire movie was that the two leading ladies were very attractive 50 something women who in another setting may have been able to better capture and retain your attention.

Yet another disappointing waste of time, next time I'll read the previews before renting.

Contrary to the title, there is only a scant "neighborly" theme to this movie. The psycho woman (Barbera Niven) just conveniently happens to be a neighbor, and I guess you could say this is her point of entry into the lives of the couple next door.

At the heart of this movie is basically a psycho assistant who fantasizes about her new boss and does everything possible to drive the man's (Perry King) doting wife out of the picture.

The movie is very similar to another Lifetime movie The Perfect Assistant which frankly is far superior- if that's even a compliment.

I will credit the movie for not having stupid people do stupid things or ignore glaring red flags. But in the end, it's basically the same ole thing where there's a final confrontation when the psycho lady just loses it and confronts someone with a gun. To be honest, I find this resolution to be quite lazy. I prefer when the psycho is confronted with lie after lie and is caught "dead to rights."

Nothing really new here.

THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR (TV movie 4.5 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 1:01 min

BASIC PLOT: Donna Germaine (Barbara Niven) is a disturbed woman, living in her own delusional reality. Childhood trauma has left her seeking love in all the wrong places, and her latest disastrous attachment is within the Costigan family. Donna has her sites set on William Costigan (Perry King), and she's not going to let anyone stand in her way, not his wife Jeannie (Susan Blakely), his co-worker Ashley (Tori Hammond), or even her own Aunt Grace (Lila Bata-Walsh). The more Donna ingratiates herself into the Costigan family, the more dangerous her obsession becomes. Can William and Jeannie discover Donna's true motives in time to save themselves, and clear William from a false murder charge?

WHAT WORKS: *THE BASIC PLOT WORKS for a low budget, made-for-tv melodrama. It could have been elevated into real entertainment with a bit more character development, but the story is fun enough to make it watchable.

*THERE ARE TWO POSTERS FOR THIS MOVIE and both of them are above average. Quality posters/DVD covers are a rarity, and deserve a mention.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *WHAT IS WITH ALL THE CLOSE UPS? I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to shove the camera that close to middle aged actors, but they need to think again.

*THE DELIVERY OF LINES IS PRETTY WOODEN All the characters, with the exception of Barbara Niven, deliver their lines in a very stiff fashion. This is a melodrama, so some of that can be forgiven, but it does have a detrimental effect on the movie overall.

*THE CHARACTERS ARE ALL ONE DIMENSIONAL Again, this is a melodrama, so deep character studies are not what you'd expect to find. Still, having the characters be this flat, it's hard to care about any of the outcomes. I expect better out of Ken Sanders.

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *If you are a fan of made-for-tv melodramas, there are worse ones out there. It's not terrible, not good, just mediocre TV movie faire.

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. This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.

This movie moved at a snails pace and the story line was way too simple to be interesting, in fact many threads they could have continued were dropped.

Donna committed several murders but seemed to attract no attention from Police. In fact the police only briefly got involved while all the dead bodies continued to pile up.

Typical 'TV movie'.

Acting was reasonable, let down by the story line. No real suspense or thrills here, way too predictable. Donna the murderess used a floppy disk which kinda made the Movie seem dated before its time.

Sorry, but I don't have much positive to say about this movie.

It's getting to be that the name Perry King is synonymous with bad Lifetime-type movies, which is a shame.

This is a Fatal Attraction ripoff with no attraction - it's all in her head - but lots of fatal. Barbara Niven plays a woman with a daddy complex - her father left when she was 8 and she blamed her mother - who goes from married man to married man seeking fulfillment. I guess she never watched Lifetime herself or she would know this is a dead end. The last guy who told her he wasn't leaving his wife got a knife in his stomach. Niven then flees to her aunt's and within five seconds is in love with Perry King, who lives next door and is married to Susan Blakeley. Mentally she's hot and heavy with him by the first commercial. There are some other people to get out of the way first, though, and a marriage to drive in the final coffin nails.

The only impressive thing about this movie was that Barbara Niven was 52 when she made it and Susan Blakeley, playing a woman with a very young daughter, was a whopping 57. I can only say, I'll have what they're having. They both look absolutely amazing in this movie. I thought I must be wrong that I saw Blakeley in Rich Man, Poor Man in the '70s, but of course I wasn't. I started to suspect the Dorian Gray syndrome with the hideous portraits in the closets. Good for them - but both actresses deserve much better. Perry King was his usual handsome, affable, clueless self.

I'd say don't watch it but if you catch it on Lifetime, just watch the first 15 minutes to catch a gander at what the fifties look like today for women and remember a time when a woman hit 30 and Hollywood stuck gray in actress' hair and made them play maiden aunts.