Our House

Details

The king and queen of comedy - Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore - star in the darkly compelling, laugh out loud Our House, out to buy and rent on DVD from 6th September 2004 from Buena Vista Home Entertainment Limited. Directed by Danny DeVito, it's a quirky comic noir creation that fans of his earlier movies will love to own.

Alex Rose (Ben Stiller) and Nancy Kendricks (Drew Barrymore) are the young New Yorkers who have just found the perfect place to settle down - a gorgeous Brooklyn two story property. The only downside is that their new home comes with an elderly tenant - a sweet old lady called Mrs Connelly (Eileen Essell), who has lived in the rent controlled apartment upstairs for years. The couple set their sights on her apartment as the perfect extension to convert to a nursery and their broker assures them that their tenant is so old that she "shouldn't be around for much longer". However, soon after they move in, she shows them how feisty she really is and things begin to descend into a comedic nightmare.

Mrs Connelly - a character with a personality somewhere between a sweet old grandmother and the Antichrist - begins her underhanded reign of terror by blasting her television at all hours of the night and having her friends round for brass band practise. Soon she is hounding Alex, a writer working at home on a deadline, at all hours of the day, dragging him down to the grocer to count grapes and help her with other mundane tasks. The small annoyances get worse, resulting in Mrs Connelly getting Nancy fired from her job and destroying Alex's laptop with the only copy of his almost finished novel. Despite her sweetness, one can't help but suspect that she does it all on purpose and soon the couple begin to plot some truly sinister - and hilarious - solutions to their problem.

Danny DeVito directed the film and once again returns to his favoured genre, the dark comedy, reminiscent of his earlier box office hits including War of the Roses and Throw Momma From The Train. A master in examining the darker sides of the human condition, he excels in presenting them in an appealing and warm manner, while at the same time raising the stakes psychologically - and Our House is no exception. The dark sense of humour is excellently scripted by Larry Doyle, former New York magazine editor and writer on The Simpsons.

Synopsis

Alex Rose (Ben Stiller) and Nancy Kendricks (Drew Barrymore) are a vibrant New York couple looking for their perfect home. After finding the ideal place, a two story Brooklyn property, with a tenant in the rent controlled apartment upstairs, they begin settling in - until the seemingly sweet little old lady tenant (Eileen Essell) becomes the neighbour from hell. Things go from bad to worse, with the comedy taking some dark twists and turns as the lovebirds become increasingly harassed. Pushed to the end of their tether, is it only a matter of time before the couple - who only want a home of their own and a chance to settle down and have kids - are driven to plot some hilarious schemes to get rid of their tormentor.