The Ones Below (2016)

Lack of good storyline.

i must have seen a different film!!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I'm not naming actors by name. You have the couple expecting a child and the couple who lose one in the apartment below. Female below is dominated by an older man, who's full of himself to the point of nausea, who goes berserk after wife falls down steps after dinner "party". Said fall blamed on couple expecting's cat but truth is female below is freaking out due to dominants behavior, and try's to hurry out due to hiding wine consumption. Those below lose child. But the words yelled by dominating male WOULD INSURE NO FURTHER CONTACT WITH THOSE BELOW. But these are times when one must be positive regardless of behavior. Which leads to an unbelievable acquiescence by the couple expecting for these two dysfunctional and possible dangerous people below to be intertwined with them to the point of letting the woman below to "watch" baby of couple expecting, essentially a complete stranger, for hours on end. There's enough red flags yet father goes along with the ones below machinations even after mother gets wise....These are times when altruism is the norm. Where the phrase "don't be a hater" originated. The result is earned. Disturbing ending.

You need a good level of patience to get through this film and it can be incredibly temping to switch off. The first half of the film is painfully slow and any sort of plot developments take an eternity to arrive. For a thriller, it takes a while to do much thrilling.The film is, however, very eerie and menacing, and teases us with 'clues' that something is not quite right. As it draws to a close, the pace picks up and the film comes into its own, with a disturbing and extremely dark ending.Overall, whilst it takes a while to get going, the viewer is rewarded with an absorbing storyline that keeps you guessing until the end.

Well Acted and Suspenseful Psychological Thriller that is held Down by an Obvious Ending that is Telegraphed in the Second Act. There is No Twist to that and once the Twist is No Longer a Twist, everything is Less than it could be.The Ending is also Drawn Out like it Thinks You didn't see it coming. Oh My! Didn't Everyone? So the Third Act is a Ho Hum, get it Over with affair. It isn't a Bad Movie just one that is Short on Surprises and in a Psycho-Thriller that's a Death Sentence.The Cast tries hard and the Emotional Dial is set at 10 most of the Time and it makes for some Engagement and Intrigue, but it really has Nowhere to Go after the Middle. The Movie is Shot with some Style, but the Familiarity with the Story is its Premature Problem.Overall, Worth a Watch but Ultimately a Let Down for those accustomed to this Type of Thing. A Good Effort Overall, but Average or just Slightly Above.

I really enjoyed 'The Ones Below' and was almost willing to give it a '9' rating, when I suddenly realised there was a glaring and unforgivable plot hole ruining the premise of the movie, or more importantly its twist. Usually I'm very forgiving when it comes to plot holes, because I'm pretty good at finding a way to justify them in some context and not allow it to destroy the experience for me. On this occasion though I simply could not do that. (SPOILERS) When the twist at the end is revealed that it was never actually the baby being thrown into the river, it makes no sense that no one has actually gone in searching and worked out there is no baby and launched a massive search. It would take the police literally 5 minutes, by the look of that river, to go in there and find whatever bundle was actually thrown in (I suspect the cat). In fact I kept expecting the father to dive in right there on the spot. You'd have to wouldn't you?It's a shame that a very poor and lazy piece of writing can take so much away from an otherwise great film. There was a lot of good elements here. There was the mystery side of things, where we were never entirely sure of character's motives and whether things were as they seemed or not. There was the dramatic side of things, with people genuinely dealing with loss and depression. And there was a lot of intensity in particular scenes, mostly created by some excellent acting by the main four actors in the cast. Putting aside the writing flaws in the ending, I did like it as a twist. It's not the most blindsiding of plot twists (because a part of you suspects this the entire film) but it still works. Definitely a film worth a look.