My boyfriend surprised me last night by taking me to see Secret Window because it stars my real boyfriend; Johnny Depp, and he knew I'd see it one way or another. I had heard mostly not-so-good things about this movie, and wasn't expecting much from it. However, despite many people's claims that it wouldn't be that great, I thought it was fantastic.
Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is a writer suffering from writer's block. He recently found out his wife Amy (Maria Bello) is cheating on him, so he is currently staying in a cabin on the lake, hoping for peace and lots of time for writing. His writing however, isn't coming easy, and the stress of his life is beginning to show. His dog and his house-keeper are the only real companions (if you can even call them that) that he sees day to day, and being companion-less doesn't do much for a man's spirit either.
Then one day, Mort meets John Shooter (John Turturrow), who immediately informs Mort that he stole John's story. Mort, who we get the feeling later in the movie has plagiarized once before, is not happy about this accusation, but though he tries to take it with a grain of salt he can't stop thinking about it. After a restless nap, Mort wakes up one evening looking for his dog, whom he soon finds, though not alive and well. After this and a few other disturbing incidents, he realizes that Shooter will go to extremes to get Mort to "fix the ending" of his story. Mort enlists the help of a detective friend, despite Shooter's advice that he leave the police out of it.
As the story unfolds, we begin to wonder who, exactly, John Shooter is. We also see how Mort's character goes from pretty stressed to, well... more stressed. He's not getting along well with his wife and her new boyfriend, especially since they are currently so determined to get Mort to sign the divorce papers.
The ending, while some people seemed to strongly dislike it, was probably my favorite part. We do eventually find out who John Shooter is, and where he came from, and its surprising, indeed.
I really liked the camera work in this film. Someone else mentioned this as well in another review; the camera angles and cuts seem to mimic the current state of Mort's mind. They change and alter as the film goes on, though it happens subtley. I also really liked the fact that Secret Window mostly seemed to be filmed in the same location; at Mort Rainey's cabin. There wasn't too much gore, or too much detail, but this subtleness only added to the psychological horror of this movie. Also, this movie had quite a few various humorous parts. Some of the parts made everyone in the theatre laugh; others made only me laugh, possibly because it was dark or sarcastic, and I'm into that more than others seem to be. The very last scene is the funniest, and I think everyone will agree with me.
As always, Johnny Depp made this movie fantastic. His character, Mort Rainey was right up his alley; his forte seems to be weird characters. John Turturro also did a great job; he played a character that was innocent looking, but scary and just plain weird at the same time. I remember him from Mr. Deeds; my boyfriend often quotes, "Don't underestimate the sneaky." He seems to be a pretty flexible actor as well.
This movie is based on Stephen King's novella "Secret Window, Secret Garden." I plan on reading it as soon as I get done writing this (I'm at work -the library-).
Though he knows he should be at his computer writing another book, or at least walking his dog along the sparkling lake outside his dingy cabin, succe...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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