Doug Martin (Nick Jonas) is a young man living at home with his parents who begins an affair with the wife of a wealthy man who moves in next door. As is quite often the case this affair doesn't end well and Doug finds himself in the centre of a murder investigation....
The first half of this film is where it is at its strongest (and believe me I'm using that term loosely here). It sets up the usual story of bored housewife being married to a rich, but rather loathsome, abusive and self-centred husband with a burning desire to leave her loveless marriage. Doug is the excitement and fun that has been lacking in wife's life hence the reason that she begins the affair. OK it isn't great up till this point (a lot of the dialogue is dull and it lacks a single powerful or strong moment in its first half, but it does show promise and you feel as though it may slowly burn into something exciting, but you know what this simply doesn't happen)....
***************************SPOILERS FOLLOW**************************
What really ruined this film for me was the decision to kill Lena's husband off at the halfway point in the film. Prior to this, the build-up suggests a simmering tension building up and I was getting the feeling that Elliott would expose their romance and exact his own revenge (particularly as he was being built up as being some sort of psychopath that you shouldn't mess with). What follows after his death is a rather tedious investigation into his death (which poor old Doug is in the frame for). Doug goes about trying to prove his innocence against impossible odds. Whilst none of this sounds bad when it's put into writing the same cannot be said for the effect of all of this being put in front of me on the screen; aside from a clever twist at the end, the rest of the murder investigation is dull and uninteresting and quite frankly for the most part it's a hard film to give a damn about.
The performances also let the film down with Nick Jonas being particularly poor - he seems to have the same gormless expression throughout the film; maybe he should stick to singing?? The likes of Isabel Lucas and Graham Carson don't fare much better either. The only bright spots in this picture were Dermot Mulroney and Paul Sorvino, but sadly they weren't given as much screen time as their rather vapid co-stars.
It's poor stuff especially considering it showed some promise in the first half. Personally, I would have preferred it if the trophy-wife's husband had stuck around for longer as the idea of him finding out about the affair and hunting Doug down would have made for a much more exciting picture. As it is though, it is sexy (in a superficial way), but it's also mind-numbingly dull.
The first half of this film is where it is at its strongest (and believe me I'm using that term loosely here). It sets up the usual story of bored housewife being married to a rich, but rather loathsome, abusive and self-centred husband with a burning desire to leave her loveless marriage. Doug is the excitement and fun that has been lacking in wife's life hence the reason that she begins the affair. OK it isn't great up till this point (a lot of the dialogue is dull and it lacks a single powerful or strong moment in its first half, but it does show promise and you feel as though it may slowly burn into something exciting, but you know what this simply doesn't happen)....
***************************SPOILERS FOLLOW**************************
What really ruined this film for me was the decision to kill Lena's husband off at the halfway point in the film. Prior to this, the build-up suggests a simmering tension building up and I was getting the feeling that Elliott would expose their romance and exact his own revenge (particularly as he was being built up as being some sort of psychopath that you shouldn't mess with). What follows after his death is a rather tedious investigation into his death (which poor old Doug is in the frame for). Doug goes about trying to prove his innocence against impossible odds. Whilst none of this sounds bad when it's put into writing the same cannot be said for the effect of all of this being put in front of me on the screen; aside from a clever twist at the end, the rest of the murder investigation is dull and uninteresting and quite frankly for the most part it's a hard film to give a damn about.
The performances also let the film down with Nick Jonas being particularly poor - he seems to have the same gormless expression throughout the film; maybe he should stick to singing?? The likes of Isabel Lucas and Graham Carson don't fare much better either. The only bright spots in this picture were Dermot Mulroney and Paul Sorvino, but sadly they weren't given as much screen time as their rather vapid co-stars.
It's poor stuff especially considering it showed some promise in the first half. Personally, I would have preferred it if the trophy-wife's husband had stuck around for longer as the idea of him finding out about the affair and hunting Doug down would have made for a much more exciting picture. As it is though, it is sexy (in a superficial way), but it's also mind-numbingly dull.