The Assassin Next Door - Movie Review

I am a fan of Olga Kurylenko. I liked her in Paris Je T'aime, Centurion and a couple of other films. When I came across The Assassin Next Door and saw her name in the credits, I paid attention to the synopsis, which sounded intriguing. It was not executed nearly as well as it sounded.

Galia (Kurylenko) is a prostitute. The film opens on a close up of her face. She is sitting in a club with another prostitute. It becomes clear that they are not willing participants when they are ordered to smile at the customers. Shortly thereafter, the two bolt for a locked door that has been temporarily opened. Amazingly, the other prostitute ends up dead, but Galia ends up as a hit-man (hit-woman?) She is forced into the proposition instead of turning tricks.

As we pick up the back story, Galia left Ukraine, her husband and a disabled daughter for Israel, where she is presently trying to work off her debt to earn back her passport and money. Galia continues to kill, but never seems to get any closer to her trip home. She is set up in an apartment, where she ends up developing a close relationship with her neighbor Elinor (Ninette Tayeb) who is a victim of domestic abuse. The two make plans to leave Tel Aviv for a remote town to start over, but the mob stands in their way.

The Assassin Next Door has a choppy storyline that bounces around with very little indication of elapsed time. The changes are forced on the viewer indelicately, leaving the audience feeling cheated and, at times, confused. The transitions could have been much smoother. The story itself is very far fetched (a prostitute being reassigned to the role of assassin?) However, it is not beyond the pale. But the transition requires an explanation, and in this story, we don't get an adequate one. The characters are pretty flat, to include the main character Galia. Although there are attempts to develop her character, they are fairly superficial. The film becomes predictable. The action sequences are the only part of the film that make it worthwhile, and they are few and far between.

Kurylenko did okay in her role, but a lot of the scenes didn't make sense. That hurt her performance. It is hard to know where she is going with the role sometimes because events sort of happen without transition or groundwork. Kurylenko appeared to give the best she could, but anyone who hasn't seen her before will probably consider her performance average. This can be said for the rest of the cast as well. The bad guys are typical flat, unexciting bad guys and the good guys are rather boring. The cast had little to work with and didn't do much to overcome their restrictions.

The Assassin Next Door was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. The film had adult undertones throughout the film, from the human trafficking trade to the hitman angle. Although violent at times, the nudity was brief. There is also some strong language. It seemed that the rating was geared more towards the themes in the film considering the rest of the material was rather tame. The violence and forced prostitution included some graphic images. I would suggest a more mature teen audience for this film. Run time is one hour, 42 minutes.

I was hoping for good things from The Assassin Next Door. I was sorely disappointed. The writing was horrid. Director Danny Lerner has written and directed one film prior to this (Frozen Days) which appears to have done better than this one. The jerky transitions between scenes, poor character development and weak foundational writing left this script with very little to offer. Kurylenko was appealing, but her character never really touched me. The chain of event seemed implausible, which was made worse by those items just mentioned. The actual cinematography was decent and the film had a nice visual appeal, but those (and Kurylenko) were about the only redeeming qualities for me. Don't waste your time on this one. 5/10.

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