Loathe Thy Neighbor: I Didn’t Loathe It. But Love It? Sorry, No

By Chris Knight

Rating: C+

Though it was shot in the verdant peninsular lands of Ontario’s Bruce County, Loathe Thy Neighbor (note the missing “u” in the title) does all it can to hide its Canadian pedigree.

Its main character Will (Brennan Clost) comes from “The City,” which is movie-speak for “your city name goes here.” Clost himself hails from Burlington, which never goes by the moniker “The City” unless you happen to live in Aldershot.

The young man inherits a rural property from his father, who took his own life. The son doesn’t seem all that busted up about it — I guess they weren’t close — but is very upset about his errant EpiPen, which was supposed to be delivered to his new home but never arrived.

Country folk being what they are, no one knows or cares about the whereabouts of the missing medication. Showing the least concern of all is Will’s next-door neighbour Wanda (Lauren Holly), an irascible beekeeper who has no patience for this city-bred softie.

Christian Majewski, a producer delivering his first feature screenplay here, is good at crafting strong characters but skimps on their backstories. Wanda’s crankiness, like the unreliability of her daughter (Brittany Raymond) or the laziness of the town’s only cop (Paloma Nuñez) is just who she is. Baked in, no explanation.

It’s a technique that allows for some moments of humour — Wanda tells her new neighbour he’s lazier than “the guy who designed the Japanese flag” — but they’re all surface, built into the writing rather than emerging naturally from the characters.

I wanted to find more to enjoy in Loathe They Neighbor — which until recently appeared on the IMDb website under the title Yuppie — but there isn’t much to love. Sergio Navarretta’s direction is solid, as are the performances, but nothing elevates the story.

And a few last-minute revelations about characters’ motivations arrive as unearned as they are unexpected. Loath to say it, but there isn’t even enough here to loathe.

Loathe Thy Neighbor. Directed by Sergio Navarretta. Starring Brennan Clost, Lauren Holly, and Brittany Raymond. In theatres August 29.