What’s It All About
The 1 Sentence Summary of The Woman in the Window
A depressed, agoraphobic woman spies on her new neighbors and gets more than she bargained for when she thinks she witnesses a murder.
Cast and Director
Starring Amy Adams, Anthony Mackie and Gary Oldman, this movie has an old-school Hitchcockian feel reminiscent of Rear Window. With a slow burn thriller like this, the audience is heavily relying mostly on Amy Adam’s ability to blur the lines between reality and hallucination. Although the casting was good, the failure to capture the novels success on screen and the mediocre directing by Joe Wright (director of Pride and Prejudice (1995) and The Darkest Hour) makes this thriller a disappointing watch.
Spoiler Alert
We’d much rather you watch the movie than read some of our favorite and least favorite parts about it. But if you have to know, check out our breakdown below.
Anna Fox (Amy Adams) discovers that what she thought was hallucination is real after looking through photographs on her phone. She verifies her find with her tenant who immediately confirms that the person exists, but it isn’t who she thinks it is. Shortly after, she hears odd sounds from her tenant. When she moves towards the sounds, she is confronted by the killer. The killer reveals that he was living in her home the entire time she thought she was alone, confirming all of her suspicions. At this point Anna finds her will to live and an intense struggle ensues between Anna and the killer.
Anna Fox (Amy Adams) is the lead character in The Woman in the Window, and delivers a great performance as a frightened and depressed woman. Since the movie is mostly confined to her home, we are really invested in everything Anna is experiencing and seeing.
The movie doesn’t have any jump scares and relies more on the viewers ability to invest in Anna’s experiences. The tension created by her new neighbors and their son combined with the strained relationship she has with her tenant all play into the narrative that is unfolding. The scariest scene in the film is when Anna witnesses the murder of a woman in her neighbors house and attempts to leave her home to help her.
There is an odd change in the films feel for Anna’s flashback scenes. Although the flashbacks help to clarify the reason why Anna is agoraphobic and suffering from depression, the way the backstory is revealed and feels slightly misplaced in the film. The film also lacks enough of the killer “playing” with Anna. At one point, a photo of her sleeping is sent to her. At this point we know the killer is getting into the house, but there should have been more of this. There should have been more instances of tormenting Anna from within her home to further erode her grasp on what is real and what isn’t. There was also the weird relationship with her tenant. That could have been exposed more and there could have been a greater build up of a whodunnit storyline if they had written the tenant’s role and relationship with Anna a little stronger.
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Summary
Scare Critics Say: ONLY IF YOU'RE DESPERATE
Scare Critic Review
This film offers very few scares and little originality. It's basic premise feels like a take on Hitchcocks Rear Window, but fails to deliver on tension, paranoia and fear to carry it through the end.
Scares Breakdown
- Murder
- Paranoia/Madness
- Psychological Torture
- Isolation
Good
- Good cast
- Good scene setting/atmosphere
Bad
- Messy plot
- No scares
- Too many cliches
- Some scenes feel out of place
- Killer reveal spontaneous with no real build up
