Woman in the Window
Director: Joe Wright (lol Mr. Right…I know I’m a child)
Writer: Tracy Lets, A.J. Finn (original author)
Starring: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Fred Hechinger, Anthony Mackie, Wyatt Russell (hey it’s a Falcon and the Winter Soldier reunion for this two), Brian Tyree Henry
Reason for watching: new release
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
I don’t know who is giving Amy Adams career advice, but that person needs to be fired yesterday. Hillbilly Elegy and this in the span of six months. Sheesh. Someone just put her in another David O’Russell movie. Honestly, she is the driving force behind this movie. It’s set up for her to show off some acting range, and she is great! But the movie is TRASH!! AND WE KEEP LETTING THIS HAPPEN!!! AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHH!!!
Adams plays recluse Anna Fox, a child psychologist who is going through a separation and a recent mental health breakdown. She doesn’t want to go outside, but can’t help and be curious about her new neighbors. She befriends the teenage son Ethan (Fred Hechinger), who is shy and seems to be showing signs of abuse. She also makes nice with Ethan’s mother Jane Russell (Julianne Moore), who she spends a nice evening drinking and chatting with. One night Dr Fox. witnesses Ethan’s mother being killed, and she immediately suspects the neglectful and intimidating father (Gary Oldman). However, when the police and the neighbors confront on it the next day, she meets a completely different Jane Russell (Jennifer Jason Leigh). She tries to prove her suspicions to the police but her meds get in the way of her coming off as a valid witness. Eventually, she must overcome her fears and personal issues to solve this mystery.
Now does that all sound like a good movie to you? Yes. We’ll it is for the first hour and a fifteen minutes or so. The cinematography is flowing, framing Dr. Fox in her home like a prisoner in her own mind. The dialogue hints at one of the final twists (yes there is more than one) at the end of the movie very well. In addition, the editing really helps us get inside the mind of Dr. Fox and see the world how she sees it. It all ties in well with the strong theme of mental disorders and how they can affect someone’s perception of reality. On top of this, the supporting characters do well too, and the story’s twists and turns do keep you guessing for a while. But to really get into what makes and breaks this movie in the end, I have to do one of these…
Alright, everyone gone who cares? Good. Anyway, we find out that while Dr. Fox did meet Ethan’s real mother a few nights before she witnessed the murder, but that was not Mr. Russell’s wife. It turns out that Mr. Russell fathered Ethan with his first wife, Katherine, who then ran off with the baby. Eventually, the first Mrs. Russell became a drug addict, surrendered the baby to her ex-husband. Later Mr. Russell remarried another woman named Jane and raised his son with her. Mr. Russell claims that his ex-wife follows them around, but has no knowledge of her following them to their new home. It is also revealed that Dr. Fox’s medications can cause hallucinations, and the reason why she must take such powerful drugs is she suffered a mental breakdown after she accidentally killed her husband and daughter in a car accident. At this point, it all clicks for Dr. Fox. She believes that her medicines caused her to believe she met this Ethan’s mother, and with the combined weight of her powerful meds, she believes that she must have hallucinated a fantastic tale involving a murder. She apologizes to the Russell family and admits her fault.
If the movie ended right there, with Dr. Fox realizing the error of her ways and trying to work through her own issues without involving others, I would probably score this movie quite well. There’s a lot to like here and this movie definitely could have been wrapped up with a nice bow inside an hour and a half (my perfect run time if you haven’t caught on by now). But does the movie wrap it up here where it would make all the logical sense in the world? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no. It does not.
After her tenant David (Wyatt Russell) reveals that he had had a woman over the night before the murder…. named Katherine. GASP. Dr. Fox shows her a picture that she took on the day she met Katherine, and David confirms that’s who he met. A new truth mounts in Dr. Fox’s mind as it all pours out of her. David tries to walk away from what appears to be another breakdown by Dr. Fox when he attacked by a masked individual. Out of the shadows a killer with a knife approaches Dr. Fox, and reveals himself to be………Ethan……
……
……
……
…..
WHAT??? WHAT TYPE OF LUNACY AND BULL CRAP IS THIS?? THE BETA OF A 15-YEAR-OLD KILLED HIS MOM??? HOW??? WHO LET THIS TWIST HAPPEN??? WAS M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN GHOSTWRITING THIS??? THIS MAKES NO SENSE CONSIDERING EVERYTHING WE’VE SEEN SO FAR!!!! IT’S SO FREAKING STUPID!!!
But oh no no. It gets worse. Ethan reveals to Dr. Fox that he enjoys killing and wants to do it some more, and his plan all along was to get Dr. Fox alone so he could kill her too. Obviously, Dr. Fox fights him off and ends up basically throwing him through the skylight in her home, killing him with the impact. She wakes up after passing out from her wounds, and finds out the police have to take her in for questioning but the head detective BREAKS EVERY INVESTIGATIVE LAW AND LET’S HER CLEAR HER PHONE OF ANY SUSPICIOUS DOCUMENTATION OR DATA THAT COULD COMPROMISE HER!!!
*sigh*
Guys. I can’t make this stuff up. If I could, I would be some millionaire novel writer like these schmucks. This whole movie speaks to a larger problem of people wanting their mystery and horror movies to have some kind of dramatic twist at the end. WE DON’T ALWAYS NEED THAT!!! Leave it alone. Or make a new trope for everyone to copy. I still like the first hour and fifteen minutes of this movie a lot. So I’m gonna be nice here, but that doesn’t mean I’m recommending this movie.
5/10
Until I see another one