Unseating James Caan as the least convincing Stephen King stand-in ever, Johnny Depp is hopelessly miscast.
Secret Window (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:155
Fresh:72
Rotten:83
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: Depp is quirkily entertaining, but the movie runs out of steam by the end.
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: 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 spiraling out of... 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 spiraling 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. Playing off of Turturro who is superb as the crazed, Gothic Shooter, Johnny Depp shines in his role with a quirky, brilliant performance. The mannerisms he brings to Mort, such as a problem with a clenched jaw, makes the author's descent into madness compelling and believable. With an emphasis on character study over special effects, the chills provided by this film rely on skilled acting and evoke thrillers of earlier generations like PSYCHO and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, including a shocking twist of an ending. [More]
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Charles S. Dutton
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Charles S. Dutton, Timothy Hutton
Director: David Koepp
Director: David Koepp
Screenwriter: David Koepp
Producer: Gavin Polone
Composer: Philip Glass
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Reviews for Secret Window
All the corn pone in Mississippi can't make this go down like anything but year-old grits.
Funny, handsomely shot and has some really creepy stuff involving reflections in mirrors -- but it's also packed with a few too many false scares, obvious red herrings and mayhem you can see coming from a mile away.
Koepp keeps the suspense going. And amazingly he does it with a minimum of violence and special effects, relying instead on such old-fashioned ideas as character, atmosphere and the occasional, time-honored, bump in the night.
It's a slight story to begin with, and the movie teeters on camp with its jokey filler material.
Star Johnny Depp and adapter-director David Koepp bring enough wit and peculiarity to the proceedings to make for an entertaining, and sometimes even smart, time.
Either a very silly Stephen King thriller or a brilliant parody of same.
Depp runs wild with eccentric behaviour. Yet, with his technical proficiency equal to his eccentric decision-making, Depp makes every choice seem appropriate or even absolutely essential to the character.
To watch Johnny Depp act in anything is always a treat. But does it have to be the only treat going?
[Depp's] amusingly idiosyncratic, yet surprisingly complex, performance goes a long way toward redeeming this otherwise sketchy film.
Generates the kind of low-wattage creepiness that helps compensate for its lack of resonance.
Not even Depp can quite save the relentless obviousness and preposterous turns.
Somewhere in the middle of [King's] range storywise, and toward the top in Depp's performance.
A second helping would be hard to justify were it not for Depp, whose manic idea of comedy seems right for a Stephen King thriller.
Like Lon Chaney or Buster Keaton, Depp tosses off endless bits of physical business as if they were little poems.
You can thank Johnny Depp and Johnny Depp alone for any enjoyment you get out of this film.
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