The Neighbor's Window - An authentic and profound film

 

(Link for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1vCrsZ80M4)

Set up in New York, 'The Neighbor's Window' is a nostalgic door to the inevitable fragility of life. The short 20-minute film depicts a fascinating account of a middle-aged woman, Alli (Maria Dizzia), peeking for a fascinating story of a young, attractive couple. Alli lives with her husband (Greg Keller) and three kids in a cramped apartment. Across the street, they visually encounter their new occupants, a couple in their early twenties. She can see them through the 'greener' windows - making love, dancing, and partying all the time.

As the months elapse, she is more captivated by their vibrant lifestyle. While she is exhausted with regular daily chores, the young couple is enamored with bountiful desire and boundless delight in life. Her window becomes her escape into the reality of their neighbors' existence. While it may seem creepy or embarrassing, it's not unnatural - this tendency to savor stories we're infatuated with, this yearning to stretch the immediacy of entertainment beyond the emotional mundanity of life. In hindsight, it makes a lot of sense — the thrill of watching almost always trumps the invariability of routine. 

The film opens with Alli trying to collect toys and getting hit on the head. Not long after that, she frantically drops apples while comparing the new couple to a 'car crash' she can't look away from. Alli's internal frustration is surmounted by the outward flexibility of the new couple. She finds it difficult to clasp the maturity of her companionship with the rhythm of their neighbors. Every sighting feels both nostalgic and new. The visual experience of one side implies the desolation of the other. Time — and its emotional dissonance — is a common narrative language, where the old reminisces of ephermal new and the new look up to the stability of old.

In the climax, the stories take a turn. The protagonist meets her protagonist; the looker confronts the looked, only to realize it was the other way around. The grass was greener until it was not. Their clandestine stalking becomes a delicate weapon to embrace the certainty of their circumstances. It binds them together. They acknowledge each other but struggle to acknowledge themselves. Alas, the film concludes with morphing the audience into a metaphorical neighbor to Alli's window, making her nonchalant life look perfect for an eternal moment as if to metamorphize our anticipated viewing as a prelude to their hope.