Secret Window (2004)

• Year: 2004
• Released: 12 Mar 2004
• Country: United States
• Adwords: 3 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363988/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/Secret_Window
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/secret-window
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: PG-13
• Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
• Runtime: 96 min
• Writer: Stephen King, David Koepp
• Director: David Koepp
• Cast: Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, John Turturro
• Keywords: murder, police, detective, jealousy, adultery,

	6.5/10
	46/100
	46% – Critics
	65% – Audience

Secret Window Storyline

Following the break-up with his wife Amy Rainey, successful writer Mort Rainey lives in a secluded cabin on the shores of Tashmore Lake in upstate New York. Their break-up was due to Amy having an affair with her now fiancé Ted Milner, although Amy and Ted assert that Amy and Mort’s marriage was long over before Ted entered the picture. Although Mort and Amy have no qualms with the division of assets, Mort is hesitating signing the final divorce papers. One day, Mort is visited at his cabin by a man calling himself Shooter, who accuses Mort of stealing his manuscript for his published story, Secret Window. Shooter does indeed have a manuscript with the text almost word for word. Shooter gives Mort a three day ultimatum of providing proof that he did indeed write the story. Shooter seems as concerned about the authorship as he is about Mort not “getting the ending right”. To protect himself against the seemingly violent Shooter, Mort hires a private investigator named Ken Karsch, who Mort hopes will be able to subdue and neutralize Shooter. As Karsch investigates, an incident makes Mort believe that Shooter was hired by Ted to harass him. But as time goes on, Shooter’s true nature comes to light as does Mort’s decreasing grasp on reality.

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Secret Window Movie Reviews

A superb, suspenseful classic.

Mort Rainey, a successful writer received an unwanted visitor one day, Mr Shooter, who accuses him of plagiarism, Mort’s life spirals out if control.

I have to be honest, I absolutely loved it, I’d class it as a real classic, it had a touch of everything, horror, thriller, psychological drama, I thought it was great.

‘The only thing that matters is the ending.’ Never a truer word has been spoken, it built and built, it developed pace and momentum, and peaked with a tremendous conclusion, the best bit of the film.

Johnny Depp, what can you say, absolutely incredible here, he’s outstanding.

I loved it, 9/10.

Spoilers… what spoilers?

I’ve ticked the ‘spoilers’ box, but this review doesn’t really contain any spoilers: that’s because even a total numb-nuts with the IQ of a flannel could figure out that Johnny Depp’s character in Secret Window is a few sandwiches short of a picnic—a schizophrenic whose damaged psyche has created a murderous alter-ego. It’s a twist telegraphed so clearly right from the start that it’s almost impossible to spoil, although further evidence of Depp’s nuttiness is liberally sprinkled throughout for those living vegetables that might struggle with such an oft-used plot device.

I’ve not read it yet, but I imagine that the novella from which this film has been adapted—Stephen King’s Secret Window, Secret Garden—bears little resemblance to this film. Writer/director David Koepp’s script lacks sophistication and finesse, as does his direction, and despite the involvement of a terrific cast, his film is quite the embarrassment, complete with numerous dumb plot turns and woeful CGI trickery. As a fan of bad movies, I actually had quite a bit of fun with this, particularly with Depp’s typically quirky performance (hence my middling score of 5/10), but I wouldn’t blame King if he sought out all those involved, killed their dog, torched their home, stuck a screwdriver in their head and buried them in his garden as a warning to others!

Real bad Stephen King adaptation – why all the praise?

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.