Review: ‘Good Neighbors’

1. "Good Neighbors" is a theoretically grisly little black comedy, one that doesn't make a lot of sense, doesn't invest a lot in its characters and doesn't spend much time drawing out mystery, but has a grand old time with itself anyway. It reminded me a little bit of Danny Boyle's acidly funny "Shallow Grave," in that it involves three stranger/friends in a housing complex together who keep learning worse and worse things about each other until, inevitably, people start dying, and dying, and dying. This isn't as good a movie as "Shallow Grave," but it has the same anarchic, amoral spirit, the willingness to just focus on unpleasant people and the unpleasant things they do. One key difference: "Good Neighbors" has a legitimately nice person in it. That must be the Canadian touch.

2. A serial killer is stalking Montreal, because the Expos are gone. (This is not why.) Two residents of the same apartment complex are obsessed with the case. One, Spencer (Scott Speedman), is a handsome paraplegic with a twisted sense of humor and a healthy disdain for humanity; the other, Louise (Emily Hampshire), surrounds herself with cats, companions that some might argue she's a little too cozy with. They obsess over the serial killer, but more out of jealous fascination than disgust: They both are so repulsed by the everyday world and the humans who fill it that a serial killer is at least something to do, another reason to stay inside out of the cold, a brave soul at last ridding them of a few more people who surely suck. This film won't do much for Montreal's tourism industry, I'm guessing.

3. Into this pot of bile comes Victor, and that he's played by Jay Baruchel probably tells you all you need to know: He's an affable, nervous, stuttering mensch who meets these two people, these sardonic, rotting, cruel people, and decides, "Oh, cool, neat friends!" They immediately assume that Victor, because he's so friendly, is a complete moron, and when Victor decides he's in love with Louise and suddenly starts telling everyone they're engaged, Louise just sort of goes along with it, all the better to end up using Victor to some malfeasant means. But when we learn who the killer is -- halfway through the film, by the way -- and the three "friends" learn more about each other, it becomes Victor has more up his Canadian sleeve than it first appeared. (Note: I am not aware of whether Canadian sleeves are different than American sleeves or not.)

4. Much of the fun of the movie is seeing these three relatively milquetoast people discovering more about each other and the total anarchy of the world in which they inhabit: I'll be careful about spoilers here and just say that Spencer and Louise aren't necessarily just interested in murder as a theoretical exercise, and that those facts don't necessarily put Victor at as much of a disadvantage as you might think. The plot is loosely assembled and sort of chews up and discards "revelations" as irrelevant; "Good Neighbors" is mostly just about these three pampered, over-educated Canadians and the games they play with each other just to stave off feeling nothing at all. Which is why Victor is such a fun character: It's a pitch-black thriller that throws a goofy, happy fellow in the middle of it, just to see what happens. Every time you think this Victor is a secret masochist, Baruchel just does his Baruchel-ian thing, and you chuckle and think, "this guy's doomed." Again: Not necessarily.

5. This is all in a minor key: Director Jacob Tierney wants to show off what he can do to sustain suspense, but he's never overbearing about it: He's almost polite. In one scene, Louise does something so grotesque, so lewd and disgusting, that you wonder how Tierney even talked Hampshire into doing it. But it plays ... I dunno .... harmless? There's not much menace in "Good Neighbors;" the most "evil" character is Speedman's, but even though we see him do some vile things too, this is the type of movie in which it feels ruder when he raises his voice at a dinner party. "Good Neighbors" isn't a crackerjack thriller by any means, and I'm not sure it means to be: It's a dark comedy about people who do horrible things, but hey, whatever, it happens: The larger concern is that terrible neighbor upstairs who leaves her garbage out. It doesn't go anywhere, but it's an amiable, unusual ride, regardless.

Grade: B-