Review
SECRET WINDOW
Starring Johnny Depp, John Turturro and Maria Bello
Screenplay written and directed by David Koepp
Opens Friday, March 12
Check listings
By now most filmgoers are familiar with the truths associated with movies made from Steven King stories. Films made from his shorter works are generally better than those based on his novels and the less scary the source material the more successful the film (check out Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption for proof on both counts).
When you consider that the new film Secret Window is a thriller based on one of King's short stories, it could go either way, but sadly, despite good performances it’s ultimately a miss.
Johnny Depp stars as Mort Rainey, a depressed writer wracked with self doubt. When another writer named John Shooter, played to creepy perfection by John Turturro, turns up accusing Rainey of plagiarism, Rainey dismisses him immediately. But when Rainey's dog turns up dead with a screwdriver in his neck, it is apparent that Shooter means business.
This premise is solid and the actors are certainly qualified. Depp plays Rainey with a spaced-out lethargy and through his bouts of depression and fatigue he becomes less sure of himself as the film progresses. As Depp has proved in the past, he can take on almost any role, imbue it with his own skewed sense of humour and make something memorable from even the most problematic script. Holed up in his secluded cabin, you may wonder why Rainey doesn't head for a hotel in the big city, but at the same time it offers infinite possibilities for lurking terror. In contrast to Depp’s bleary-eyed charm Turturro plays the backwoods rage of Shooter with a stunning sense of restraint. He takes what could have easily been an over-the-top disaster of a role and makes it his own. These two performances at the core of the film should be more than enough to weather the rough patches, but as is the case with most Hollywood thrillers, this one falls apart at the end.
Director David Koepp does his best using a creeping camera, slow tracking shots and high angles to maintain the suspense. There is evidence that Koepp is channelling elements of Alfred Hitchcock (right down to Phillip Glass's musical homage to Bernard Hermann), but most of the time he relies on cheap thrills instead of actual suspense. As Secret Window builds to its conclusion, the stakes get higher and the line between reality and psychology becomes blurred, dispelling most of the film’s tension. As the film plods towards the final frames Secret Window may offer one surprise, but ultimately it degenerates from the darkly comic pressure cooker of the opening acts to diluted formula with a tacked-on punch line in the closing scene. |
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