For all the potential “The Woman In The Window” had to be the ‘Rear Window’ or the ‘Disturbia’ for the pandemic age, it’s safe to say its own ambition was misplaced. If anything, its derivative reliance on Alfred Hitchcock right down to the boney little finger is not what I found disappointing; hell, not even the lackluster payoff to the ending got on my nerves despite the glaring red flags. I’ll get to why in a few.
From what I’ve deduced in Hanna and in here, Joe Wright is not the kind of person who likes to phone things in as a director so I’m glad he tried his damnedest to keep that bit consistent despite the reshoots and re-edits. Also, need I say more about Amy Adams? The way she’s so self-serious but also very in her element about where she is and how’s to go about this is why she’s one of the best actresses working today. Even looking outside of Amy’s magnificent performance banter, the film is visually and aesthetically gorgeous. Ghoulish blue and chilling pink tints and hues in the lighting help set the atmosphere up from the very beginning, reveling in its own noir visual touches that sets up ONE pretty shocking sequence in the latter half. The prowling cinematography and production design only further escalate the gripping clutch of claustrophobia and once again, Danny Elfman’s score is easy on the ears, body, mind and soul.
Also, I will wholeheartedly admit the first twist that came about actually took me off-guard and it convinced me to keep my eyes glued to the screen long enough to deduce what I thought did and didn’t go down.
But as you can see from my reaction, it’s safe to say what bugged me about this movie turned me off from enjoying the rest of it. The references to Alfred Hitchcock’s better works are aplenty and not so much restrained in a way that it feels like a homage, strange editing choices weren’t as off-putting as the ADR sound editing, it’s bits of dialogue were stilted and disjointed and the characters were really really annoying with the decisions they made especially with Amy Adam’s character going through the overdone ‘forgot to take your meds’ just for the plot to get where it has to go. They refer back to it so often too and once it clicked that it wasn’t gaining any reaction, it got irritating fast.
You know what? I think that’s my main problem with this movie: it’s irritation incarnate. From the actions and reactions from the characters to strange graphics and Frankenstein-like scenes throughout, it’s not unwatchable or broken but from copying other movies’ styles to how inconsistent everything is sprinkled about the films structure, it’s just so annoying and boring to the point where whatever interest you did have after the first half is bound to trickle away faster than sanding paper.
