by John Zenoni
If you are looking for an old fashioned, good murder mystery-suspense film, well, ‘The Woman in the Window’ on Netflix is not it. I'm so disappointed too, as I really loved the premise, the trailer and the fact that it is has a great cast - Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman and the so under appreciated Jennifer Jason Leigh. I mean, how could you go wrong with that caliber of actors? Well, wrong. It did. That's not to say it's all bad but it's definitely not the film I expected it to be.
I think this film was doomed early on anyway with the drama surrounding the author of the novel on which the film was based (which has been on my TBR list since 2017). Apparently, an article a couple of years ago exposed the author, whose real name is Dan Mallory but his pseudonym is AJ Finn, as someone who had created stories about himself in order to further his career and was referred to as a fantasist. Then production started on the film but it encountered many problems and was delayed being released even further when COVID hit. Then the original movie studio who owned the film sold it, thus causing further issues, including rewrites, as test audiences were confused about what was happening in the film. So it sounds like this one should have been shelved and rewritten.
It's unfortunate, as again, the cast and director, Joe Wright, who has done some great work, made this a promising film that just doesn't live up to its potential. For those not familiar with the story, Amy Adams, who does a great job with what she has, plays anxiety ridden, agoraphobic Dr. Anna Fox, who hasn't been able to leave her house for 10 months. Since she's ‘trapped’, other than having a tenant who lives in her downstairs apartment/spare room, she's alone and spends her time watching the outside world through her windows. It just so happens that new neighbors, the Russell family, move in across the street and Anna becomes fixated on them, thinking she witnesses the murder of the wife, Jane, played by Julianne Moore. Here starts the mystery and question of what's real and what's not.
I myself found some things confusing as well, so apparently the studio didn't do a great job of ‘fixing’ the issue that the test audiences found in terms of the plot. There are a few suspenseful, tense moments and some moments of good acting (Jennifer Jason Leigh was an absolute waste in her part) but the film just doesn't get its ‘act’ together and leaves you with more questions than answers. Big disappointment, to say the least. I'm moving on to the book to see how much better that is.
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