Review: The Woman In The Window

Image courtesy of Netflix.

Joe Wright's "The Woman in the Window" is an example of a group of talented people being stuck in a stylishly made but somewhat silly film. Clearly stealing more than a few lines from Alfred Hitchcock's playbook - as well as an entire setup from "Rear Window" - the film has some solid camerawork and its great cast does its best to sell the material, but it comes up a little short. This is not to say the film is bad or doesn't keep our attention, although its big reveal at the end is somewhat of a letdown.

In the film, Amy Adams plays Anna Fox, a child psychologist who has become agoraphobic and seemingly has some past troubles that are only slowly revealed. She is apparently separated from her husband (Anthony Mackie), who appears in flashbacks and whose voice is heard through conversations with Anna, although it's unclear when they're taking place. The couple also has a young daughter.

She quickly becomes embroiled in a mystery when a new family from Boston moves across from her Manhattan brownstone and she spies strange goings-on through her window. She first meets the couple's teenage son, Ethan (Fred Hechinger), who seems a nervous type, and Anna instantly begins to think there's something bad happening to the kid at home. 

Soon afterward, she meets a woman (Julianne Moore) who she thinks is the boy's mother, and not long after that believes she sees this same woman murdered while spying on the home across the street through her window.

But strangely, the boy's creepy father (Gary Oldman) and another woman claiming to be his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) show up together after Anna calls the police to report the murder. Oldman's Alistair Russell threatens Anna, while Leigh's character tells her to leave her family alone. Meanwhile, Anna has a tenant (Wyatt Russell) living downstairs who is occasionally her confidant, but she soon finds out information about him that makes him not-so-trustworthy.

About two-thirds into the movie, we learn about an incident from Anna's past that is likely meant to throw a wrench into the plot, making us think that Anna is, perhaps, a little cuckoo. However, it's obvious that this is meant to merely distract from the fact that there is indeed someone guilty of murdering the woman who Anna saw through her window.

When we finally learn the identity of the villain, it could have made for an interesting twist, but the reasoning behind it is somewhat generic and a final standoff between Anna and an intruder in her home doesn't quite pack the punch that it should. 

"The Woman in the Window" has some impressive camerawork, especially considering that it's mostly set inside an apartment - albeit the type of huge New York City apartment we see in movies that nobody can actually afford. And the cast all does its best, but ultimately this is just an average thriller with a lot of talent on board trying to make the best out of an idea that's far from original.