Secret Window film review

certificate_12A

SECRET WINDOW

Writers block can be an author's worst nightmare. Starring at a blank sheet of paper (or screen) waiting for inspiration to strike. Some distract themselves with the washing up or gardening, almost anything to avoid writing. Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) takes slightly more drastic action in pursuit of the perfect ending to his story. Based on a Stephen King novella, Secret Window is a functional if not wholly satisfying thriller about an obsessive writer whose lines between fiction and reality become blurred, with tragic consequences.

What sustains interest beyond a mildly intriguing if strained plot is the presence of Johnny Depp as the disheveled, reclusive Rainey. He is always able to add layers to the most superficially drawn characters and is so likable you think him incapable of evil. We first meet Rainey, a successful writer of lowbrow crime novels, as he struggles with a story about a husband and his cheating wife. For Rainey there are clear parallels with his own life. He is in the midst of a divorce from Amy (Maria Bello) who has taken up with another man, Ted, (Timothy Hutton). Through their bitter rows, it's obvious both still love each other and, in Rainey's case, harbor dreams of reuniting.

As Rainey, secluded in his lakeside cabin, slouches around in his wife's battered old dressing gown, sleeping and starring at his computer screen, he is visited by a stranger. John Shooter (John Turturro), with a farmer's hat and a Mississippi drawl, claims Rainey stole one of his stories, which Rainey published under the title 'Secret Window'. It's a claim Rainey denies, but the threatening Shooter demands proof. Rainey doesn't take his accuser's warning seriously until he finds his dog murdered. From then on Rainey's nerves are tested both by the fear of Shooter and the impending severance from his wife.

As you'd expect from any purported thriller, there are plenty of jumpy moments, usually of the banging door and stalking around in the dark variety. Director and writer David Koepp knows his way round the thriller genre, with screenplays for Panic Room and Stir Of Echoes, while also scripting lighter fare like Spider-Man and Jurassic Park. His guidance is competent rather than inspiring. There's little sense of urgency and it's clear that, being based on a short story, there is not much material of substance to work with as Secret Window barely fleshes out its short running time.