|
| • Advanced Search • Help |
Secret Window | Year: 2004 Classification: Horror Directed: - David Koepp Actors/Actresses: - Johnny Depp - John Turturro - Maria Bello King corn "Secret Window" must be the umpteenth movie adapted from a Stephen King story, and it's not one of the most successful. I haven't read all of King's works -- evidently they constitite a small-town library -- but the ones I've read reveal a mild talent for the Gothic genre. (Interestingly, one of the best, "Gerald's Game", has not been filmed, perhaps because its claustrophobic variations on a theme would not appeal to adolescents.) "Secret Window" has Johnny Depp as a burned-out author going through an unusually recriminatory divorce. Depp, fresh from playing Captain Queen in "Pirates of the Caribbean", goes in the opposite direction here: badly in need of strong coffee, hair a rat's nest, tattered bathrobe, thick eyeglasses clamped to his face. Depp takes chances, you gotta give him credit. His character has moved into an upstate New York country house, isolated and in more need of repairs than Depp himself. He's immediately confronted by a strange character out of "Deliverance" (John Turturro) accusing the author of plagiarism. Now, in real life, with today's high-tech communications, such a vague accusation could be resolved in hours. But this is not real life, it's Stephen King, so the situation drags on and on, becoming increasingly nasty. Director David Koepp works with the idea that if you're manipulative enough the audience will not notice the incompetence in the plot's construction. And the manipulation is shameless, not to mention predictable. Scene after sloppy scene is just too obvious to be scary. As for the ending: well, I'm not going to give away the secret of "Secret Window". Let's just say that Margaret Millar did it a lot better in "Beast in View", and that was nearly 50 years ago. Johnny Depp's 'Secret' This past weekend, my family and I decided to catch the new Johnny Depp movie. When I first saw the trailers for Secret Window, I thought it was going to be just another insane, slaying movie without a plot and without any real acting talent in it. Boy was I wrong!!! The movie is based on the Stephan King novels, Secret Window and Secret Garden, and knowing this, I knew this movie was going to be a suspenseful thriller. Johnny Depp plays a well-known writer who lately is having an extreme case of writer's block. Now he just sits around in his worn, old bathrobe and talks to his dog, mostly because his wife left him about six months ago for another man. To add to his problems, a stranger from Mississippi comes knocking on his door one day and accuses Mort (Johnny Depp), of stealing his story, Secret Window. Mort becomes fed up with the stranger who calls himself Shooter (John Turturro), and ignores his accusations. But now strange things begin to happen; to Mort, and his family. Mort soon discovers that Shooter is the one reeking havoc on his life. Shooter demands that Mort fix the ending of Secret Window to the way it "should be" and to re-publish it under Shooter's name. He wants the new ending to be that the character kills his wife and buries her in the garden, under the attic's secret window. Mort still refuses to listen to Shooter, and the deadly "accidents" keep on happening. Eventually Mort understands the real reason why Shooter is stalking him, and why the ending of Secret Window needs to be changed. I'm not going to give away the ending because I must say it is one of the MOST unexpected and thrilling finales I have ever witnessed! The repeated saying , "the only thing that matters is the ending", is a major element throughout this movie. <BR> What really made this movie so believable and terrifying was the acting. Johnny Depp's character makes us all jump whenever he opens a closet to discover something or wakes up from his daily nap to find terror right in front of him. And also John Turturro's "Shooter" make's us all think twice before opening the door. This horror film gets an A+ from my family and me! Secret Window will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time and will leave you breathless with an ending to 'die' for! Expected A Little More Than Given... Overall this film kept me right on the edge of the seat, and that's why I give it the four stars. Jonny Depp was great in this movie. He looked exactly like a writer- tousled hair, hilariously tattered robe, the works. He worked the part of a lonely writer perfectly. He played this 'lonely writer' who is obviously still tortured about his wife's infidelity and their divorce they are finishing through, and then to add to his problems a guy comes to his door and claims he stole his story. Throughout the entire movie I was kept in suspense, because I honestly didn't know what was going to be the solution of this plot. <BR>And yet the solution is where I dropped one star. The ending was a total killer for me. I don't know why, but in the back of my mind I made the assumption that this guy accusing Depp's character of plagirism was a lot more than he turned out to be. I won't ruin the ending for people who haven't seen it, but trust me, the ending is not explosive, not surprising, not anything. It's just a dull 'oh yeah' kind of ending. But all in all, the beginning and middle of this film are gripping and awesome, so the movie's worth that much to watch it. Buy Secret Window at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Secret Window Search with the Priority Search Engine on Secret Window This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
|
