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Good Neighbours
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Laying its scene in Montreal’s largely anglo Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighbourhood during the winter of 1995 and 1996 (against the backdrop of the sovereignty referendum), Good Neighbours stars Emily Hampshire as a young waitress at a terminally empty Chinese restaurant; Scott Speedman as her downstairs neighbour, a shifty widower confined to a wheelchair; and Jay Baurchel as the new guy who recently moved into their low rise apartment complex. While Hampshire’s Louise and Speedman’s Spencer spend their free time poring over Globe & Mail and Gazette articles for information regarding the at-large N.D.G. killer, Baruchel’s Victor funnels his needy energies towards winning Louise’s affections.
As the killer’s victims start popping up in closer proximity to their apartment, the tenuous friendship between the three tenants is strained by further suspicion. Tierney crafts the suspense masterfully, offering up easy clues (Spencer’s legs are awfully toned for a paraplegic) and more subtle nuances in gesture, dialogue, and sensibility that inflect these characters’ relations with one another.
Though the TIFF programming notes nod to the affinity Good Neighbours shares with Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave (1994), its close-quarters mystery (most of the film’s action transpires within the tenement itself) and shades of darkly comic humour recall everything from Rear Window (1954) to A Shot in the Dark (1964). Good Neighbours is a quirky, grisly thriller: one which gives narrative force to the emotionally chilly isolation often bred by cold Canadian winters.
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