Review: Secret Window
March 30, 2004; Loew's Boston Common #6
* * * (out of 4)
I've been on a huge Johnny Depp kick following last year's Pirates of the Caribbean and Once Upon A Time In Mexico, so I've been looking forward to this for some time. I was a little discouraged when I heard that beyond Depp's performance, it wasn't very good, but I finally decided that I needed to go see for myself. Surely Johnny could drag a thriller through rough spots, right?
Well... he tries. Good lord, does he try. Sometimes he gets help, other times... well, it's just him. Depp plays Mort Rainey, a successful mystery writer trying to clear up some writer's block in a cabin in upstate New York. His first night there, a knock on his door introduces him to John Shooter (John Turturro), who claims that Rainey stole an entire story from him and published it as his own. Eventually, Rainey looks at the manuscript, and finds that it is indeed a near-exact rendition of his own story. The plot then turns to Rainey trying desperately to recover a copy of the magazine in which his story was originally printed from his estranged wife (Maria Bello), which would prove to Shooter that Rainey wrote it first. Shooter, it seems, doesn't allow this to happen, culminating in the apparent arson in the home of Rainey's wife. The latter half of the movie watches Rainey very closely as he becomes more and more desperate to remove Shooter from his life.
As always, Depp is excellent. Rainey is a departure from all of his previous characters, while at the same time retaining a characteristic that makes him likable. Here, Depp is twice at his best; once in an
argument with his wife's new boyfriend who is constantly trying to get involved, and again near the end of the movie, once everything is explained, Depp becomes creepy to a new level. In fact, he fills in the creepiness factor that I felt was lacking from John Turturro for most of the movie. Turturro's Shooter was intense and well-acted, but I didn't feel like there was much of a sense of urgency in his pursuit of Rainey. The rest of the supporting cast felt a little bit flat as well; Maria Bello's Amy Rainey was flat, and it?s hard to understand her motivation for the divorce when it's blatantly obvious she cares about Mort more than new boyfriend Ted (Timothy Hutton). Charles S. Dutton's hired bodyguard could have been an interesting character had he been around more before being cut out of the movie.
Also notable is David Koepp's direction. I think Koepp picked up some of Sam Raimi's style while working on Spider-Man; as I was sitting there, I felt like I had seen some of these shots before. In particular is a certain scene when Rainey stares into a mirror; the angle reminded me of Army of Darkness, and there's a certain amount of 'fear of what you can't see' that struck me as Raimi-esque. Understand that this is not by any means a bad thing. Koepp could find worse directors to learn from.
This is a thriller with good direction, some solid performances, and one excellent performance. Unfortunately, it's just not terribly thrilling. Koepp wrote Panic Room, so I know he can do better than this. The script isn't bad; on the contrary, Depp's dialogue is excellent, aided, I'm certain, in no small part by the man delivering it. It just seemed like Koepp took the easy way out in a few places to get a shock effect, and in this case, it didn't work for me. There are obvious ties to another high-profile psychological movie that will diminish his premise as well. A good try that produced a decent movie... but maybe it just didn't turn out quite as the writer/director wanted.
March 30, 2004; Loew's Boston Common #6
* * * (out of 4)
I've been on a huge Johnny Depp kick following last year's Pirates of the Caribbean and Once Upon A Time In Mexico, so I've been looking forward to this for some time. I was a little discouraged when I heard that beyond Depp's performance, it wasn't very good, but I finally decided that I needed to go see for myself. Surely Johnny could drag a thriller through rough spots, right?
Well... he tries. Good lord, does he try. Sometimes he gets help, other times... well, it's just him. Depp plays Mort Rainey, a successful mystery writer trying to clear up some writer's block in a cabin in upstate New York. His first night there, a knock on his door introduces him to John Shooter (John Turturro), who claims that Rainey stole an entire story from him and published it as his own. Eventually, Rainey looks at the manuscript, and finds that it is indeed a near-exact rendition of his own story. The plot then turns to Rainey trying desperately to recover a copy of the magazine in which his story was originally printed from his estranged wife (Maria Bello), which would prove to Shooter that Rainey wrote it first. Shooter, it seems, doesn't allow this to happen, culminating in the apparent arson in the home of Rainey's wife. The latter half of the movie watches Rainey very closely as he becomes more and more desperate to remove Shooter from his life.
As always, Depp is excellent. Rainey is a departure from all of his previous characters, while at the same time retaining a characteristic that makes him likable. Here, Depp is twice at his best; once in an
argument with his wife's new boyfriend who is constantly trying to get involved, and again near the end of the movie, once everything is explained, Depp becomes creepy to a new level. In fact, he fills in the creepiness factor that I felt was lacking from John Turturro for most of the movie. Turturro's Shooter was intense and well-acted, but I didn't feel like there was much of a sense of urgency in his pursuit of Rainey. The rest of the supporting cast felt a little bit flat as well; Maria Bello's Amy Rainey was flat, and it?s hard to understand her motivation for the divorce when it's blatantly obvious she cares about Mort more than new boyfriend Ted (Timothy Hutton). Charles S. Dutton's hired bodyguard could have been an interesting character had he been around more before being cut out of the movie.
Also notable is David Koepp's direction. I think Koepp picked up some of Sam Raimi's style while working on Spider-Man; as I was sitting there, I felt like I had seen some of these shots before. In particular is a certain scene when Rainey stares into a mirror; the angle reminded me of Army of Darkness, and there's a certain amount of 'fear of what you can't see' that struck me as Raimi-esque. Understand that this is not by any means a bad thing. Koepp could find worse directors to learn from.
This is a thriller with good direction, some solid performances, and one excellent performance. Unfortunately, it's just not terribly thrilling. Koepp wrote Panic Room, so I know he can do better than this. The script isn't bad; on the contrary, Depp's dialogue is excellent, aided, I'm certain, in no small part by the man delivering it. It just seemed like Koepp took the easy way out in a few places to get a shock effect, and in this case, it didn't work for me. There are obvious ties to another high-profile psychological movie that will diminish his premise as well. A good try that produced a decent movie... but maybe it just didn't turn out quite as the writer/director wanted.
posted by Matt S. at
2:47 PM
