{"id":217001,"date":"2025-10-22T04:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/217001\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T04:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T04:06:09","slug":"heres-why-the-perfect-neighbor-nearly-ended-before-trial-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/217001\/","title":{"rendered":"Here&#8217;s why The Perfect Neighbor nearly ended before trial verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018We could have a title card saying that the trial was pending\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Everything about The Perfect Neighbor is heartbreaking, and the ending is no different, but director Geeta Gandbhir has now revealed why the documentary almost ended before the trial verdict.<\/p>\n<p>Watching <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/tag\/the-perfect-neighbor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Perfect Neighbor<\/a> on Netflix is an emotional experience. The documentary traces the tragic story of Ajike \u201cAJ\u201d Owens, a Black mother of four who <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/2025\/10\/20\/three-other-tragic-cases-like-the-perfect-neighbor-show-how-deadly-stand-your-ground-law-can-be\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was shot and killed<\/a> by her neighbour, Susan Lorincz, in Florida. The film is raw and deeply affecting, but the way it ends, with the verdict in Lorincz\u2019s trial, wasn\u2019t always planned that way.<\/p>\n<p>So, how was it supposed to end initially?<br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-534506\" class=\"size-full wp-image-534506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/VS-Netflix-ThePerfectNeighbor-9508.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2224\" height=\"1251\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-534506\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Susan Lorincz via Netflix<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.filmcomment.com\/blog\/interview-geeta-gandbhir-on-the-perfect-neighbor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Film Comment<\/a>, director Geeta Gandbhir explained how the ending came together. Trials, she said, are unpredictable. \u201cIt was supposed to be in June, and then it was pushed to August. Originally, we thought it was going to be in November or December of 2023,\u201d Gandbhir said.<\/p>\n<p>At first, Gandbhir considered ending the documentary with Lorincz\u2019s arrest. \u201cOnce Susan was arrested, which you saw was the most ridiculous kind of circus, with her refusing to leave the room, once that had happened, we thought that we could end the film there. We could have a title card saying that the trial was pending. And hopefully that would keep people engaged,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p>Because the trial happened in time, she also thought about including the trial throughout the film but ultimately decided against it. \u201cAt one point I questioned whether we should interweave the trial throughout the film. And I thought, absolutely not. It is a full story up until the arrest, and then the family gets to have the last word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By waiting to include the final verdict, Gandbhir allowed the documentary to maintain its emotional impact.<\/p>\n<p>The Perfect Neighbor is available on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/tag\/netflix\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix<\/a>\u00a0now.\u00a0For all the latest Netflix news and drops,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theholychurchofnetflix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018We could have a title card saying that the trial was pending\u2019 Everything about The Perfect Neighbor is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,392,90591,22708,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-217001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-netflix","11":"tag-the-perfect-neighbor","12":"tag-true-crime","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}