Duplex (2003)

Synopsis: A newlywed couple buys a house but cannot evict the upstairs tenant, an old woman. She makes their lives hell after they move in.

Appraisal: A variation on The Ladykillers (1955), to which it pays homage through its male and female young protagonists' last names. The first half of the movie is enjoyable at its best and tolerable at its worst. The second half is tolerable at its best and offensive at its worst. The director of this movie, although he hasn't written it or any of his previous ones, exhibits some thematic recurrences which are not hard to detect. Throw Momma from the Train (1987), like this one, had an old lady which was loathsome and hard to kill. The War of the Roses (1989) also had indoors belligerence. Matilda (1996) depicted another kind of tyranny of the older against the younger. And Death to Smoochy (2002) had, as here, one character's relentless efforts to destroy another. Hitchcock references seem to be recurring as well: "Duplex" references "The Birds" at one scene, "Throw Momma from the Train" is a loose remake of "Strangers on a Train".

Rating: 46