There are certain flags that sometimes go up, albeit miniature ones on some occasions, that can give as an indicator as to how to interpret a work of art, beginning with whether or not the work is worth interpreting. Indeed, sometimes such things come in handy because one isn’t quite sure, amid a production’s murky quagmire of images, if the person would be better off just giving up the ghost or whether the effort to see the other shore, even though at this point in time it may very well be a vainglorious hope and dream at best, might ultimately reveal Treasure Island. Such is the case with Next Door. For example, director Pål Sletaune was offered the chance to direct American Beauty, the 2000 Oscar-winning film by Sam Mendes, but declined because he didn’t believe the script contained enough substantial material. Another facet of the director’s résumé that might be nice to have in one’s back pocket is that, to date, Sletaune has produced a picture every four years, that is, barring that the chronology is not coincidentally balanced intervals consisting of something as moot as the financial acquisitions. Indeed, by the finale of Next Door, the interested viewer might very well be scratching and clawing for anything within reach to help out with Sletaune’s cinematic enigma inside a puzzle inside a conundrum.
John (Kristoffer Joner), recently separated from his girlfriend, Ingrid (Anna Bache-Wiig), encounters two sisters living next door to him, Anne (Cecilie Mosli) and Kim (Julia Schacht). After being asked by Anne to do her the favor of coming over and moving a dresser in front of the door, she leaves John to look after Kim, whom–as reported by Anne–was assaulted and is therefore unable to be left alone. Aside from the sisters having eerily reiterated the story of Ingrid’s leaving John, after being left alone, Kim proceeds to beat while simultaneously seduce her guest-cum-babysitter after fabricating a story of three men having raped her. Shortly thereafter, John begins having difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction after he finds Åke (Michael Nyqvist), Ingrid’s new boyfriend, in the sisters’ apartment as he and Anne force John to confront the fact that he has killed Kim. As John tries to discern what has occurred, he realizes that he is the only one living on his floor and that Ingrid or Kim might have never existed.
Typically I don’t go into quite as much plot exposition as I have with Next Door. In a sense, I might be attempting to construct what will ultimately be the catalyst leading to my epiphany of the work’s true meaning. However, for now I must sally forth due to a deadline as opposed to committing myself to repeated viewings, which may very well never lead to a better grapple with what Sletaune is offering.
Granted, I have thus far spoken in very vague terms amid abstaining for stating anything concrete in regard to the film’s merit. On this note, I feel as if I’m in the midst of something very powerful but, much like David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, it would take several, several viewings in order to make such a stalwart declaration.
What I can proclaim without the least bit of hesitation is that the work pulls the viewer in, beginning with a eerie, ironic incidence of dialogue, repeated verbatim, between two would-be antagonists before the scene gives way to other parallel scenarios shared between willing and unwilling participants. Obviously, what we must first consider is whether or not John is sane. However, regardless of which side of the fence the viewer winds up, this merely leads to other, more pressing, questions, such as how and why the character(s) is/are (not) mentally competent, whether (a) crime(s) has/have been committed, and–regardless of the verdict of the former–if there exist(s) (a) culpable party/parties. Whew.
Next Door leaves one with the impression that, upon reflection, we can decipher a steadfast plot but, alas, after said reflection, the storyline refuses to condone to such a simplistic reading. This said, one is nonetheless left with the feeling (once again) that the work is not intentionally obfuscated in the hopes of the viewer reading too much into the film, thereby issuing it undue credit. Instead, the residual sentiment is insinuated to be the potential catalyst for a forthcoming revelation yet, as previously noted, this poor reviewer is unable to grant the reader such insight due to, natch, time.
With some features, a viewer can watch or read interviews with cast members, who will offer possible directions in which to take the work. However, even though Bache-Wiig states that neither sister exists and, paradoxically, that they are both yearning merely to be loved, I cannot content myself with this as being an even slightly stable assessment of the work in that, granted, any actor’s comments are an interpretation but, in most cases–the person having been the character for a set period–we can feel relatively safe in siding with an actor’s notions and opinions upon the work. However, as convoluted as Next Door is, I readily dismiss the actress’s commentary as merely another take on a script which might very well carry the agenda of not having one (though I have my obvious reservations with such a reading).
I suppose the only thing that one can reasonably ask about Pål Sletaune’s Next Door and expect a ready answer is whether or not the film should be seen. With this I forthrightly announce, “Yes!” Regardless of whether a viewer comes away with more or less than this humble critic, the experience is surreal, eerie, befuddling, and engaging and, even if the Sletaune’s film is a mere jumble of unrelated ideas which, as I outlined at the beginning of this review I find highly unlike due to Sletaune’s history, Next Door offers more in this regard, i.e. a cinematic experience, than most everything else than has graced the screen in recent memory.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
