Secret Window Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)March 16th, 2004
Secret Window
Rental with Snacks
As many latter-day Stephen King film adaptations seem to be growing more and more forgettable, it always sparks my interest when a gilded cast such as this decides to (on paper) slum their way through another one. John Turturro, art house favorite and funky man's thinkin' man; Maria Bello, recently polishing her new indie street cred from her performance in The Cooler; Timothy "Remember Me From Taps and The Dark Half" Hutton, a wild card but a good bet; and of course, perenial bridesmaid Johnny Depp, who finally got asked to dance by the Academy but still had to take a cab home. Depp of course is well known for picking and choosing his projects carefully, and despite a not-so-auspicious looking preview, I hauled my cookies down to see how Depp and King worked together.
It is fortunate for this film that it has such a strong cast (buoyed also by Charles Dutton because the story itself is a wee bit forgettable, even to a King fan like myself. You've seen the preview, and it doesn't give you much information - apparently John Turturro believes that writer Depp has stolen his story, and Depp inherits some reasons to be pretty scared of this character. What surprises follow are pleasurable enough to discover as they happen, I would prefer not to reveal them. Depp, as he has been doing for years unnoticed until Jack Sparrow, is incredibly interesting to watch. What appears to be a pulp paycheck and no more (an odd choice for the France-dwelling recluse) becomes plum interesting when assayed by our favorite pirate. His character is stymied by writer's block, harrassed by Turturro, and conflicted about Bello, and also trying to live awkwardly in his own skin. It's a great performance in a fair to middling movie. Depp fans take note.
Probably something that helped this movie be less of a potential mess was that it was written and directed by David Koepp, and when a writer can interpret his own material (well, adapted material) and has the experience to do so, it is frequently better realized. The pacing of this film is very good, so much so that it is the first compliment to leap to mind when asked what I thought of it. Koepp is no stranger to writing in tempo, with Panic Room, Jurassic Park, Carlito's Way, and the first Mission Impossible movie on his resume. He also wrote and directed The Trigger Effect, which was not well-received but I recall as being very effective wih the psychological aspect of that film's interesting plot device. Secret Window's device is not his own, but Koepp pulls out his experience to save the device from itself. And he uses some cool camera work to tell the tale and keep you interested. Meanwhile, minimalist composer Philip Glass turns in his most James Horneresque score yet.
It's not the best King adaptation ever, but it's a good one. See it for Johnny.
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These reviews (c) 2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
