Secret Window Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)March 15th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "Secret Window" (Columbia Pictures)
After his swashbuckling "Pirates of the Caribbean" triumph, Johnny Depp delivers yet another quirky performance in this psychological thriller based on a novella by Stephen King.
Depp plays Mort Rainey, a successful-but-lonely mystery writer who rattles around in slovenly squalor in a tattered bathrobe in an isolated lakeside cabin in upstate New York. His luxurious house in Riverdale is occupied by his soon-to-be ex-wife (Maria Bello) who has taken a lover (Timothy Hutton). Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. Underneath a big-brimmed black hat, it's John Shooter (John Turturro), a mysterious stranger from Mississippi who accuses Rainey of plagiarism and demands satisfaction. "I will burn your life...like a cane field in a high wind," he threatens ominously. "Always pleased to meet a reader," Rainey counters with ironic ambivalence. Yet, when his dog turns up with a screwdriver through its neck, Rainey shells out $500-a-day to a big-city detective (Charles S. Dutton) for protection, which is understandable since the local sheriff (Len Cariou) is preoccupied with his needlepoint.
Writer/director David Koepp, who worked wonders within the confined territory of "Panic Room," capitalizes on Depp's deft ability to find campy humor in weird places, eliciting oddball laughs in even the most peculiar circumstances. Which is commendable since the ominous story, basically, revisits the isolated insanity of the "blocked-writer" territory that Stephen King has explored better before, particularly in "Misery." With a supernatural twist, the corny conclusion is not really much of a surprise by the time you get there. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Secret Window" is a taut, somewhat scary 6, as Johnny goes off the Depp end again.
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