The conventions are there. Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is a writer, living alone in a woodland cabin. He is threatened by a strange man, who calls himself John Shooter (John Turturro), making a strange claim – in this case claiming that Mort stole one of his stories.

The set up is certainly eerie, almost like Misery or something. But we never really feel it. The atmosphere of fear never sets in. It’s like it’s constantly trying to scare us but never does. On the other hand, at least it tries to scare us through understatement rather than the other way around. Window avoids the temptation to create jump scenes which would have brought more of an audience reaction, but would have weakened the fear level even more.

The ending is certainly clever – especially as you begin to notice all the clues placed along the way – but it’s not as compelling as it wants to be. Maybe it’s just the case that movie going audiences are immune to these kind of twists, but in this particular case, the paced eeriness never builds up and never reaches the level of tension that it wants.

But it’s certainly fun to look at. The cinematography is always beautifully warm and works well with its wooded setting. Johnny Depp is able to hold the screen alone for long periods of time, and what help he does get from the likes of Turturro is good as well.

For a mystery/thriller type of film, Window is surprisingly one that might be more enjoyable the second time through for its Sixth Sense type of hints. Bottom line is, this is a script that probably looked good on paper, but despite a great cast, gets lost in translation to the screen.

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