2010 Sundance Film Festival

Leonardo is a successful industrial designer who lives in an equally exceptional home with his wife and daughter. The home is modern and minimal, featuring lots of windows and open space without feeling as though it were pulled from an Ikea catalogue. One morning Leonardo is woken up by an obnoxious pounding noise. He discovers that his neighbor Victor is installing a window to “let in some rays.” The window faces directly into Leonardo’s house and instantly becomes a point of contention in the two’s relationship and slowly reveals the other cracks in Leonardo’s seemingly perfect existence. Each and every scene of The Man Next Door has been created with an eye for design. Early on it’s very clear that the beautiful composition of The Man Next Door is no accident. Although this attention to detail is astounding, other aspects of the film seemed to lag. The film has a number of details that are never fully explained, which left me wondering why certain aspects weren’t edited out. And with the exception of Victor, many of the characters seem underdeveloped or just uninteresting. Man Next Door is a visual delight, but the plot does not hold up very well during the 110 minute run time. –Jeanette D. Moses http://sundance.bside.com/2010/films/themannextdoor_sundance2010