Duplex (2003)

Plot: Married New Yorkers Alex Rose and Nancy Kendricks are on the market for their first house, largely for Alex, who, writing his second novel with an imminent deadline for his editor Jean, would like to be able to work from home opposed to using a local Starbucks as his office. Despite being at the upper end of their price range, they believe an agent named Kenneth has shown them the perfect property in Brooklyn, the twist with it being that it is a two level duplex. The plus is that they get two units for the price of one. The minus is that the upper level unit is a rent controlled apartment with an existing tenant, an elderly Irish woman named Mrs. Connelly who they cannot evict. In meeting Mrs. Connelly, they believe she will be a harmless enough tenant, enough for them to purchase the property without even having viewed her unit. They ultimately find that Mrs. Connelly's sweet outer nature masks the tenant from hell, she who seems to be able to manipulate the situation to her benefit as the helpless little old lady. Her constant late night noise leads to Alex needing to nap frequently during the day instead of write, and even when he is lucid enough in the day to write, her constant requests impede his time. Even after Alex foists the responsibility of building manager to Nancy to handle from her office, she a magazine designer, the problem is just spread between the two of them and not just Alex. And any measure they take to curb whatever problem Mrs. Connelly presents in their life, a local beat cop, Officer Dan, always seems to come to Mrs. Connelly's aide against them. As such, they feel the need to take increasingly extreme measures to deal with the problem that is Mrs. Connelly.