The Assassin Next Door

A Ukranian woman, Galia, is working as a prostitute in Tel Aviv, when her friend is beaten and stabbed to death. She survives the abuse by the Russian mobster and he offers her a deal to stop selling her body if she will become an assassin instead. She is given a modest apartment and follows orders. Her passport is being held, preventing her from traveling to see her daughter.

Day after day, her neighbor, Elinor, is physically abused by her husband. She finally stabs him and the two run away as the mob turns on Galia after she steals money she is owed by her mafia bosses. The speaking parts alternate from English to Russian to Hebrew with subtitles.

There are the usual chase scenes and shootouts and Olga Kurylenko is sexy as Galia, the lead hit woman on the run from the bad guys. A desperate woman doing anything necessary to survive in a cold, cruel world, The Assassin Next Door is depressing and in the end an average action film.

-- Review contains spoilers I liked the actors,I hated the story and music.

The movie has some really powerful scenes, in which we get a glimpse of the real human trafficking.

The story is beyond stupidity: A runaway mother from her mentally retarded child, which somehow is sold as a sex-slave in Israel, reached to become a bad ass assassin which kills all her owners + bodyguards and become friends with a sexy husband abused woman.

The action, is not really good and frankly the Hollywood stereotype of spaghetti arms assassins, it's getting boring. Actually the only good scenes are the ones where the girls talk and when we see some European human trafficker mentality towards his salves.

The action is pretty decent and it stays true to it's origins (language wise, you will hear a few languages spoken throughout the entire movie). It has a strong leading performance by Olga K. (also known for her role in the most recent Bond movie, not that much for her Hit-man turn-up). Apart from that you have good to decent acting throughout, but a few scenes fall short of the premise.

This is a very sensible theme and the director did a decent job in portraying that. Still there are quite a few flaws (like length and dialogue choices, clichés) that might hinder you from rating this movie higher. Than again, I just read a 10/10 review and the user sounded pretty convincing. So it's up to you, if you see more than I did or agree with me

Throughout the movie the script portrays the two women as the most stupid beings that have ever existed... the ending even worse, what would Eleanor do with a corpse? How come there was that shooting and nobody seems to bother in the station at the end? Even a low budget movie at least some logic and common sense. Not this one...

3 November 2017. It's important to be aware that this movie is not an action movie, but a dramatic thriller. With the word Assassin in the movie title, there's an implicit bias towards believing that this movie will be full of sophisticated violence in the mold of Haywire (2010) or La Femme Nikita (1990). Instead what this predominately Israeli production offers is a drama involving a woman who apparently is trapped in a vicious criminal gang who forces her to do awful things. As such, the storyline actually involves two women, both having to contend with their own abusive situations.

The forlorn musical score along with a strong script involving the plight of a ordinary, but rather good looking females facing very difficult life decisions tugs at the heart and thrills with the unknown outcome and life choices facing each women. This is a straight forward no-nonsense look at human trafficking and domestic violence along with a gun for added suspense. Additionally, in a moving and riveting musical number with the ending credits, Ninette Tayeb who played the principal role of Elinor, that she wrote and sang. Rarely has the lyrics during an ending credits been so intertwined with the movie itself that it actually becomes part of actual movie as a lyrical scene unto itself.

Most audience members who come into this movie with preconceptions might easily be quite disappointed with what they experienced to what they wanted to see. Nevertheless, the movie itself, such disappointments can't take away the definite foreign flavor of this intense and moving movie. The only few problems with the movie might include the over-use of the same lonely and sad melody which could have been remedied with perhaps one additional piece, the almost unbelievable gun battle scenes with what might be considered too many against one, and finally the surprising absence of local security or rapid response around various public places considering this movie supposedly takes place in Israel, not the most safest place in the world.

However, these few weaknesses don't really diminish the captivating storyline, the human interest and internal struggle of these two women who have to make tough decisions against great odds.