Direction: Joe Wright
Country: USA
The elegant filmmaking style of Joe Wright, the British director of modern classics such as Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007) and Darkest Hour (2017), becomes powerless in face of the tremendous destabilized screenplay of The Woman in the Window, an Hitchcockian psychological thriller that took its influence too far. Tracy Letts, who also stars, adapted A.J. Finn’s bestselling novel of the same name, but not even a great cast fronted by Amy Adams and including Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger, Julianne Moore, Wyatt Russell and Jennifer Jason Leigh, was capable to make it convincing or stimulating.
Anne Fox (Adams) is an agoraphobic child psychiatrist living in Manhattan, New York. She loves to snoop on her neighbors. Recently separated from her husband, who took their daughter with him, Anne immerses herself in this noxious daily routine, which also includes alcohol and drug intake as well as some minimal interaction with her tenant, David (Russell), a sinister singer/songwriter turned handyman. When the Russells move into an apartment she owns across the street, she gets to know more about them - the controlling and temperamental Allistair (Oldman), his nosy and fragile wife Jane (Moore), and their sensitive 15-year-old son, Ethan (Hechinger). One day, from her window, she witnesses a murder in their house.
In addition to a synthetic central character, the weak intrigue and rigid dynamics place the film between a poorly investigative case and a phony state of paranoia. The flaws are significative throughout, ultimately leading to a more ridiculous than revelatory closure. I expected much more from Wright than just craftsmanship behind the camera. This is stale when it should be tight.
