Secret Window (2004)

Psychotic Johnny Depp!!!

Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses

Secret Window
Starring
Johnny Depp

Director
David Koepp

Screenplay By
David Koepp

Reviewed By
B.L.Morgan

How many of you out there have had a relationship end because your partner fooled around on you behind your back? I don't expect anyone to answer that question because I know how embarrassing even being asked that can be.

Since today seems to be my day to make people uncomfortable, I'll try again.

How many of you writers out there have had someone accuse you of plagiarizing their work? Not me. I'll tell you that up front, because even rumors of that kind of thing can ruin a writer's career.

Morton Rainy, played by Johnny Depp, has both of those problems. Add to that the ingredient that Rainey is emotionally a wreck due to the intense pain from his divorce and you have a ticking time bomb. Depp is rapidly becoming one of my favorite actors to watch. First he was incredibly funny as the nutty buccaneer in Pirates of the Caribbean and now he flawlessly plays a clever, charming, emotionally dissolving man. "Secret Garden" could almost have been called the Johnny Depp show.

The guy accusing Depp of "Stealing" his story is John Shooter, played by John Turturro. If anything is weak about this movie it was Turturro's portrayal of Shooter. To make it plain, He just wasn't scary at all.

Johnny Depp carries this movie and does it magnificently. He is edgy, full of rage, lazy, distraught and funny. It's not very easy doing all those emotions in one motion picture, but he pulls it off.

There is one other star of "Secret Window." David Koepp directed this movie and did a good job of it. He was also the screenwriter and that's where he really shined. If you've read "Secret Window, Secret Garden," by Stephen King you'll recognize the story of "Secret Window." But Koepp weaved some surprises into his film using the original story elements that were very startling.

I give "Secret Window" a rating of 4 out of 5, only marked down because of Turturro's non-menacing John Shooter. He really could have done better.

If you like Stephen King's fiction, you should see this movie. I consider it one of the best of his adaptations. If you are a writer who likes King's work and have read "Secret Window, Secret Garden" it would be a crime if you don't see "Secret Window" with Johnny Depp as the slightly psychotic Morton Rainey.

July 31, 2008

Regurgitated King

If I hadn't seen that "Secret Window" was adapted from a Stephen King story I wouldn't have been surprised. This flick just smacks of deja vu. It's not bad King but it's not particularly great. The blocked writer in a remote setting with murder and mayhem ensuing is just so familiar. What elevates the film beyond the mundane are game performances by Johnny Depp as the harried writer and John Turturro delivering an inspired turn straight from "Night of the Hunter". Maria Bello looks hot but essentially wasted. Forgettable in the near extreme. July 14, 2008

Hollywood does good with this King story.

Johnny Depp, you just have to admire the guy.
He can turn any role into something brilliant.
He certainly did in this movie.
From start to finish, interesting, memorable, fun from start to finish.
The ending really didn't surprise me all that much.
I never read the story, but I've read so much of King's work, I knew what the ending would be halfway through the movie.
Still, it's a clever and twisty movie with the usual knockout performance from Depp.
Recommended.
June 25, 2008

Awesome

I ordered this DVD and three days later I had it. I'm very satisfied with this company. I would recommend them to everyone. Awesome job!!! March 23, 2008

THERE WAS A SECRET HERE?

I used to love reading Stephen King novels. Then somewhere along the way, it seemed to me that he got too caught up in his own hype. Rather than tell a story that kept me captivated, he began to lengthen the stories by adding so much detail that I found I didn't care after so many pages. That being said, I never read the story that this movie was based on. And after having watched it, I am glad that I didn't.

Johnny Depp plays Mort Rainey, a writer of mysteries who begins the movie confronting his wife Amy (Maria Bello) in bed with her lover Ted (Timothy Hutton) at the local motel. Fast forward six months and we find Mort asleep in his cabin by the lake. With writer's block setting in, Mort is confronted one morning by a tall country bumpkin who calls himself John Shooter (John Turturro).

Shooter accuses Rainey of stealing his story, one called THE SECRET WINDOW. And now he wants Rainey to give it back to him with full credit. Rainey argues with him and turns his back on Shooter. But when he leaves, Mort opens the door to find Shooter's manuscript on the porch. In reading it, he finds that the story is almost identical, word for word, to the one he had written years before.

Another face off between the two comes the following day. When Mort asks Shooter when he wrote his story, he informs him that that date was two years after the story was published. Shooter offers him a chance to prove him wrong by presenting him a copy of the book within the next three days. Mort later finds his dog killed, a screwdriver sticking out of him, proof from Shooter that he means business.

Contacting the local police against Shooter's written command, Mort finds little help. When he talks to his soon to be ex-wife, he ends up doing nothing but regurgitating old arguments and opening old wounds. Mort turns to a private detective (Charles Dutton) he has used before when he dealt with a rabid fan of his novels. Dutton agrees to look into it as well as the cabin.

Mort is contacted again and again by Shooter, who makes a point of never being seen. And with each visit, Mort is set on edge, wondering if anything will get this man off of his back and out of his life. When his wife's house is burned to the ground, the house where he had a copy of the magazine the story was published in, he begins to wonder if even offering the proof will stop Shooter.

There is more going on here than meets the eye. Subtle hints of the real story are strewn throughout, giving clues as to the real person behind it all and the motivations as well. Fans of mysteries will catch these early on while everyone else will be left wondering. Perhaps I have seen too many films and read too many novels, but I knew who was behind it all within the first 15 minutes of the film. And this was what made it a bad movie for me.

A mystery should keep the viewer held captive in their seat as they try to solve the riddle posed to them. The amazing thing to me about this movie was that not only was I able to figure it out, I felt that I had seen a number of stories based around this theme time and time again. I was stunned that a story about plagiarism actually felt like a plagiarized story. I don't know where, but I have seen this tale before.

The movie itself was well made and enjoyable to watch. Depp has proven that he is more than just a pretty face, although that is more than enough for fans like my wife. The sign of a good actor is one who can make you believe that they are the character and not an actor portraying one. Depp has that ability.

For those who aren't jaded by seeing too many filmed mysteries or having reads too many, this movie will provide you with a nice evening out. But for fans of the genre, it will result in watching and waiting for the revelation to come out knowing the answer well in advance.
March 15, 2008

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