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Secret Window

Secret Window (2004)

March. 12,2004
|
6.5
|
PG-13
| Thriller Mystery

Mort Rainey, a writer just emerging from a painful divorce with his ex-wife, is stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger and would-be scribe who claims Rainey swiped his best story idea. But as Rainey endeavors to prove his innocence, he begins to question his own sanity.

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slightlymad22
2004/03/12

Continuing my plan to watch every Johnny Depp movie in order, I come to Secret Window.This could have been your usual 'Man alone in a isolated cottage, terrorised by noises at night' bland type of thriller thy I tend to skip. But strong performances and solid direction raise it up a notch.John Turtturo owns this movie, he is superb. Depp knocks it out of the park again (for the third movie in a row) with his hair a constant mess and usually wearing a battered dressing gown (were these the actor or the character?? You never knew with Depp back then) he is compelling. Charles S Dutton and Maria Bello round out the cast well. David Koepp is more we'll known for his writing (Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, Carlito's Way, The Paper and Mission Impossible than his directing (I only know Trigger Effect without looking) but he does a solid job, and I'm surprised I'm not aware he has directed anything of note since.It's not perfect, for from it, but it is solid and entertaining. For me Secret Window is somewhere in the middle of King adaptations, and towards the top in Depp's performances.Secret Window grossed $48 million at the domestic box office to end 2004 as the 67th highest grossing movie of the year.

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Mohamed Abdalla
2004/03/13

If you want to know how does it feel to be drained as a writer, then watch this movie. The movie starts with a scene of "Depp" seeing his wife cheating on him in a motel, then we move to see glimpses of the boring life of a writer, it really shows how deep can a writer go while struggling for an idea to write.It's a psychological/thriller movie that will make you wonder throughout the movie, what makes this experience better is the great acting of "Depp".What makes this movie not that good is the kinda expected ending,However it's not explained what was "Depp" suffering from ! Is it schizophrenia ? Is it writer depression ?Finally, it's a good movie that you will enjoy both by acting and the story.

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Nicolas F. Costoglou
2004/03/14

Secret Window is one of the few movies directed by David Koepp, who is otherwise known as a well respected screen-writer (who also wrote this one, based on the short-story by Stephen King).What i find interesting about Koepp is that all of his films are visually stunning and very imaginative, and that he knows how to build up suspense (could be because he worked with such great craftsman as Sam Raimi, Steven Spielberg, and Brian De Palma).Secret Window has the reputation of being a very well made movie, with a strong performance by Johnny Depp, but also with an ending which many feel, destroys the movie for the most part...Well, it's hard to say, but all of this hits right on the nose, except the part with the ending...it's not THAT drastic...(Afterall the protagonist even says that the ending is the most important part of a story)There are two things i have to say about that:First, the ending everyone talks about is made up of the last few minutes of the film, which is, up to this point, excellent. In my opinion you have to decide if these few minutes really could destroy the integrity of the sheer quality which came before it. And second, the ending itself is (technically) incredibly well made, and fascinating to watch. The only weak part is the motivation of the character.This review is marked as a spoiler-review, so you are warned:In the end it is revealed that the whole story centered around the antagonist of the story, because the protagonist and the antagonist are the same person (i know, who ever used this kind of twist, right?). The idea on itself is fascinating, and the scenes before also make sense despite it, BUT the reason why most people don't like it, seems to be the motivation of the character. It's not really clear WHY he has such a big psychological problem, we know that his wife cheated on him, but that's never enough for a person to get that mad and on this kind of murder-rampage, in which he even kills people who tried to help him, and who he really liked.To come to a conclusion: Secret Window is a very well made Mystery- Thriller, with a weak ending. You have to decide yourself if it breaks the movie for you, or just makes it a bit weaker then you expected...

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Leofwine_draca
2004/03/15

This is a rubbishy, cheesy B-movie that attempts to ride on the coat-tails of other 'twist' ending movies like THE MACHINIST and FIGHT CLUB, borrowing liberally from those two movies without ever taking itself seriously enough to be effective. As a result the film is goofy and predictable throughout, hindered by another 'kooky' turn from the increasingly stale Johnny Depp, and a script that spoon-feds the story to mindless viewers in an attempt to pull the rug out from under their feet. The problem is that the twist becomes startlingly obvious about ½ way through the film and the final scenes, while attempting to portray psychological disturbance, end up more like a silly rerun of the Michael Keaton flick MULTIPLICITY than the serious drama that they want to be.While Depp is boring, he's supported by a lot of decent actors. John Turturro makes for a suitably imposing bad guy and Charles S. Dutton, well he brings the screen to life as always. One of my favourite performances comes from Timothy Hutton, whose presence is a nod to another Stephen King adaptation, THE DARK HALF, in which he starred. The only bad thing is that he serves as a reminder that even this King novella is a rubbishy, half-developed version of an altogether better book and better film. Meanwhile, the less said about the disappointing Maria Bello, the better.While this film does start off quite well – despite the predictably of yet ANOTHER King offering with a weirdo writer as the leading character – things fall apart so badly as the story progresses. David Koepp, reasonably efficient in the past, lets the cabin-in-the-woods setting get to his head and poorly experiments with camera angles in an attempt to recreate the success of THE EVIL DEAD. There's a ludicrous rip on THE SHINING at the film's climax and, while it deserves kudos for going through with a murder that I thought it never would, it's clear that this should have had a harder rating, with severed heads and arterial blood to add to the horror aspect. As it is, the horror is lukewarm and rehashed, and aside from one good car-over-the-cliff scene, it sucks.

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