slightlymad22
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.
beatriceyongyuexuan
The movie had a very eerie and tense atmosphere since the beginning, but I think that the way the story progresses, it seems as if the movie producers are deliberately trying to steer away from the ending that might have been expected or had at least crossed the audience's mind. But I'd say that this movie focuses a lot more on details rather than the actual story plot or the events that take place in the story. So I feel that this intentional emphasis on detail has dragged the thriller movie on too long for my taste. Also I'd say that the actors' expressions in this movie were too little, barely giving out any clue about what might they be feeling or thinking, which soon became a little uninteresting.
Leofwine_draca
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.
KineticSeoul
Johnny Depp is the one that makes this movie watchable. Overall, this is a pretty mundane and predictable movie. The mystery wasn't all that exciting and it just felt dry to sit through. When I saw this movie when I was in my early teen, I thought thought it was a alright flick. And didn't really know what direction the plot was headed. But watching it now, I don't know how I missed how it would end. It's difficult to anticipate what is going to happen next, when you are so sure what the twist is. So for the most part I was like "when is it going to get to the twist already" because this movie seems to be heavily focused on the predictable twist. If the build up was at least more interest or enticing I would have stayed focused. But for the most part, this movie can put you to sleep. It's worth only one watch since you won't miss anything by just seeing it once. And seeing it a second time won't add anything.4.6/10
AD
