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Secret window - Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, David Koepp, Stephen King

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Some windows should never be opened.

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, successful author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is sleeping on his favourite sofa for up to 16 hours a day. He is in the midst of a painful divorce and everything about the break-up has turned messy and unpleasant. It has sapped his energy and siphoned away his creativity, leaving him with a monumental case of writer's block that renders him incapable of even stringing a simple sentence together.

Then, when it seems as if things can't possibly get worse, a psychotic stranger named John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up at his doorstep, accuses Rainey of plagiarising his story and demands satisfaction. Despite Rainey's efforts to placate him, Shooter becomes increasingly insistent and hostile, intimating a twisted sort of justice that could include cold-blooded murder.

Forced into a mind-bending game of cat and mouse, Rainey discovers that he has more cunningness and gritty determination than he ever imagined. In the end, he realises that elusive Shooter may know him better than he knows himself.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film thriller murder mystery writer fire arson

Persons of interest

Johnny Depp .... Mort Rainey
Kyle Allatt .... Busboy
Maria Bello .... Amy Dowd Rainey
Gillian Ferrabee .... Fran Evans
John Turturro .... John Shooter
Len Cariou .... Sheriff Dave Newsome
Charles Dutton .... Ken Karsch
Timothy Hutton .... Ted
Stephen King .... Novella: Four past midnight: secret window, secret garden
David Koepp .... Screenwriter
David Koepp .... Director

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Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

What is it with corn? Why do corn fields keep turning up in thrillers? They're just vegetables and now they're a Hollywood cliché. If you see a corn field, someone's going to die (See also The highwayman, Joyride, Signs).

Anyway, Secret window is another twisty thriller that you have to see to appreciate. I won't tell you the surprise ending (when someone lives alone in a cabin in the woods you just know there's going to be a surprise ending), but it's a surprise, which is a good thing. I didn't guess the surprise ending until just before the surprise ending surprised me, which is a good achievement because I'm very intelligent and as clever as a sewing machine.

Johnny Depp is fun to watch but his character is yet another cliché: miserable, separated writer with serious issues suffers from writer's block in a rustic cabin in the middle of the woods. Why do writers always get divorced? Are they inherently unstable? I've never married one so I can't comment more profoundly. I've done a bit of writing in my time (plays, poetry, prose, novels) but I'm unstable whether I'm writing or not so I'm stuck there, too.

Secret window is a tasty film that should be watched for its entertainment value (ie with some of your critical functions in rest mode) rather than as a hard-core thriller. Popcorn a bonus.