Review of Secret Window (2004) by Cameron J — 22 Nov 2011

Wait, where are the binoculars and the murder? Oh, wait, that's "Rear Window". I find it rather ironic that this film is about plagiarism, and when you see the title, you're thinking that somewhere, Al Hitchcock's ghost is popping up in Stephen King's room to slap in the face with a lawsuit. Well, even if there was a chance of that happening, I doubt that it would, because what easily gives away the fact that this is not a rip-off of "Rear Window" is the fact that the lead is not a kid, and yes, I know that the lead in "Rear Window" was an adult, but they've adapted and parodied that film with kids so blasted much that they've started calling James Stewart "Jimmy" Stewart, or at least that's my attempt at giving everyone an excuse for calling him that all of a sudden, but then again, maybe I shouldn't be talking, seeing as I just called Alfred Hitchcock "Al", which is more hypocritical than "Terry" Malick calling "Chris" Nolan a repetative director, when he has, in fact, been remaking the same movie since "'Thin Line'"; and speaking of which, I would be interested to see "Leo" DiCaprio and "Ed" Norton in a Malick film, almost as much as I want to see "Dune", as done by "Pete" Jackson and "Jim" McAvoy play the Gladiator legend himself, good ol' "Spart", which might not happen, seeing as they've been making too many movies and shows about the legend since "Stan" Kubrick did it way back before "'Strangelove'". ...Does anyone get it yet? No, but seriously though, after thinking about it, maybe you could mistaken the lead for a kid, or at least based on the name of the guy playing him, because Johnny Depp has some babyface going on, and if you were to give him a good, clean shave and perk up his skin with some makeup... well, he still wouldn't look like a teenager, but hey, they're getting forty-year-olds to play fourteen-year-olds in all of these horror movies, so I guess that you could still make that mistake. Well, they definately wouldn't go that route, because what's so great about Stephen King is the fact that he does all he can to make sure that his stories and any adaptations of them don't fall into cliches, but boy, his fans just love making his stuff slow, and this film is no different.

King is definately a meditative writer, and a lot of the times, people don't really translate it right. Well, actually, the problem is that people translate the slowness too well and meditative writing is quite different from meditative filmmaking, so instead of getting consistent psychological chill, we get a mean case of slowness. Well, I don't know if I could blame King for this film's slowness, because although I've never read the story, I highly doubt that King wrote "And so Rainey walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, then proceeded to do some walking, followed by walking, and then he layed down, before getting back up to walk around his house some more." For the love of David Fincher, it's a short story, and sure, this is a short movie, but it stands to be shorter, or at least more exciting. The film is overly quiet and slow in atmosphere, and that flaw is exacerbated by the repetition. To make matters worse, the slowness is mostly used to convey realism, and sure, it's effective, seeing as real life is pretty boring, but when dark melodrama comes into play, the transition is bumpy, for although the psychological impact of the film is more often than not rather effective, the tone change from quirky realism to dark pychology is so drastic that it becomes offputting, making it harder to latch onto the thriller aspect, and by the end, you feel rather unsatisfied. Yes, the film is quite flawed and definately stands to be more effective, but then again, the word "more" insinuates that there is still a level of effectiveness in the film, and sure enough, although the film is flawed, you better have some idea of what you're doing if you're gonna be treading the ground of the King, and director/writer David Koepp's misstep are matched, if not just barely surpassed by what he does deliver on.

As I said, the thriller aspects are diluted by the more quirky aspects, and it doesn't help that Koepp has written plenty of snap and quirk in the dialogue, but still with a down-to-earth tone. Still, when it does get to the surrealism, it's still effective; maybe not as much so as it could have been, were the tone changes smoother, but they still work, nevertheless, because Koepp really knows how to play with the environment, and when he has to, he really plays on the creepy with the dark tone, and even the sound design. This film opens right up with a creepy sound design over nothing but windshield wipers brushing up and down in front of our lead in his car, and just like that, Koepp has told us what this film really stands for. Sure, the quirk that immediately follows and dictates most of the film betrays the darkly meditative tone Koepp established with that subtle sequence, but when the dark meditation returns, it's manipulated so sharply that if the transition into it was better, it really would have hit home, but as it stands, it still has you pretty tense at points, growing more so as it progresses, before finally hitting an awesome, chilling ending. Of course, this film wouldn't be as effective as it is without the help of its leads. John Turtorro is such an effective antagonist that really knows how to play up his mysterious presence in such a creepy fashion, and you really find yourself truly wondering just who in the world this nutcase is and just what he will do next. Still, who really carries this film is Turtorro's opposite and our lead, Johnny Depp, who may just be worsening the tone change by being ever so delightfully quirky, as usual, but when all the pieces do fall together, Depp effortlessly conveys the pressure and confusion that pushes down on his shoulders through fine emotion and a strong presence, and you really fall into his conflict and life, whereas most any other actor wouldn't be able, or would at least find it hard to work past the lack of immediate development in our lead and make the act of dropping into the middle of his life work.

Ultimately, its quiet, slow atmosphere - made worse by some unnecessary sequences - often kills the steam of the film on its feet, and its overly prominent quirky segments make the transitions in the dark segments bumpy ones, but what director/writer David Koepp does deliver is generally effective, from snappy dialogue, to a fair share of tense sequences, but couldn't have done it without the creepily effective antagonistic performance by John Turtorro and above all, Johnny Depp's quirky, when not deeply compelling lead performance that leaves "Secret Window" to stand as a generally enjoyable psycho-thriller experience.

3/5 - Good.