Secret Window
(2004)
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Based on a Stephen King novella, the psychological thriller SECRET WINDOW is reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film. Eccentric author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) finds his life spiralling out of control. With a drinking problem and a cigarette habit he can't shake, Mort can barely function when his wife (Maria Bello) leaves him and he abandons his work. In the midst of his anguish, a deranged man, John Shooter, (John Turturro) appears at Mort's New York cabin, claiming that Mort has plagiarized one of his stories. As his wife pushes Mort to finalize their divorce and Shooter systematically destroys his life, he struggles to restore order to an increasingly insane situation. |
Given his sound treatment of novelist Richard Matheson's chiller Stir of Echoes, you'd have thought director David Koepp would have been more than qualified to create a good Stephen King adaptation. However, movie history is littered with poor attempts to exploit literary cash cow King, and this lacklustre psychological thriller unfortunately joins them. In another of his eccentric performances, Johnny Depp stars as a successful author whose writer's block is nothing compared to the hell that he encounters when psychotic stranger John Turturro accuses him of plagiarism. Ironically, given its storyline, the film unfolds just like another King book, The Dark Half, a weakness that isn't helped by Koepp's heavy signposting of twists. While Depp's emotional seesawing and Turturro's furrow-browed intensity are entertaining in themselves, you can't help wondering what two fine actors are doing in something that feels made for a small-screen audience.