As popular as Jennifer Lopez is as a singer and music video star, she is still trying to establish herself in the movies. Her best films are at least a decade old (Selena, Out of Sight, Shall We Dance?), while her newest, The Boy Next Door, seems like a weak offshoot of Enough, a 2002 abuse / revenge film she made with Billy Campbell and Noah Wyle. Enough isn’t a very good movie, but at least Lopez’ character finally stands up against her abusive ex-husband in a memorable showdown. In The Boy Next Door her character is always a victim.
Rob Cohen’s film has all the earmarks of a bad film, though one that perhaps could be a guilty pleasure. Any school that features sultry Jennifer Lopez as a classics teacher and Kristin Chenoweth as a foul-mouthed vice principal is one I would have liked to attend. Lopez is steamy hot, but no more so than she is in any one of her ultra-sexual music videos. Dramatically its best asset is the performance of Ryan Guzman as the title character, who quite understandably develops a crush on his sexy neighbor. Guzman is quite believable as a charming, chiseled young man whose dark side is just an errant insult away.
On a very basic level, the film works satisfactorily. The scenes in the school in which Claire (Lopez) discovers just how spiteful her neighbor can be are nicely staged, though it is difficult to believe that no one else would see the evidence. Tension is properly generated when Claire makes the effort to learn just how obsessed he has become. But the film loses its punch at several key moments, and the finale — staged in a barn for some reason — is wildly unbelievable, and ridiculously gruesome to boot.
It is a mystery to me why Lopez — arguably one of the most recognizable females on the planet, and one with some talent — cannot find herself a decent movie vehicle. This one was written by a woman, Barbara Curry, but that doesn’t make it any more respectable. This is a movie that could have appeared in the mid-1970s, with a star like Sybil Danning or Angel Tompkins to properly sex it up. It seems out of place in this era, and I cannot recommend it. ☆ ☆. 16 February 2015.