Year of Release: 2021
Director: Joe Wright
Starring: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Tracy Letts, Jeanine Serralles, Mariah Bozeman
Genre: Crime, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
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Synopsis and Review:
Right after the well received "Darkest Hour", director Joe Wright tackled the adaptation of the book by A. J. Finn, "The Woman in the Window". Much has been reported on the fact that the film was ready to premiere in 2019, but was continuously pushed to new release dates since it didn't quite test well with audiences. It finally got its premiere courtesy of Netflix, and it features a fantastic cast. The film follows the story of Anna Fox, a child psychologist, who is also agoraphobic, and due to that stays at home all the time. We first come to notice her while she's in a therapy session, where she also discusses her reliance on medication and her tendency to drink way too much. During the course of a week we come to witness her daily habits, which includes talking with her husband, or soon to be ex husband, who has custody of her daughter. She rents the basement of her Harlem townhouse to a young man by the name of David. One day of the week she notices new neighbors moving to the townhouse across from her. She soon meets the young son of the couple who has moved in, and they quickly establish a friendship. On Halloween night, as her house becomes the target of some frustrated partiers, she gets rescued by a woman, who tells her she's the mother of the young man she befriended. They have a nice evening, which doesn't prepare Anna for what she witnesses the following night. Jane, whom she spoke with, is brutally stabbed and murdered in the townhouse across from her, and as Anna furiously tries to go and help her, she's unable to do so. Upon reporting the incident, the family and police appear, with Jane, who turns out to be a completely different woman. As Anna's credibility and sanity hang by a thin thread, she tries to uncover what has happened.
"The Woman in the Window", unlike Curtis Hanson's "The Bedroom Window", has the ambition of being something more akin to a prestige film, and that's where it ultimately fails. The material for all its smartness, it's ultimately a suspense story, and the film itself, plays out fairly flatly and without much suspense or effective tension. For a film that references so many wonderful features in itself (Hitchcock's "Spellbound" shows up for instance), this one never truly manages to give the characters much dimension. It's a puzzling film, not so much for the narrative that it unfolds, but mostly because it has so many wonderful actors, without much to do. Aside from Amy Adams's Anna Fox, who actually has some dimension to her, due to the traumas she's been through, and eventually her arc & redemption, most of the supporting roles are primarily archetypes, without much motivation, nuance or for that matter, resonance. Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore, Anthony Mackie, Tracy Letts, Brian Tyree Henry, all great performers, sadly have mostly walk on roles, and the film doesn't utilize much of their skills or talent to add further enticement to the narrative. The cinematography from Bruno Delbonnel is beautiful, and Amy Adams is as always captivating, but the film lacks a more distinct approach, one that takes this somewhat pulpy material, and brings it to life more memorably (much like Anatole Litvak's "Sorry, Wrong Number" for instance, who knew how to create effective tension). A waste of talent and efforts.
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