Open Windows

I watched writer/director Nacho Vigalondo's Timecrimes a few years ago and was very impressed by the film generally, but especially by the unabashed ambition and imagination on display in what was a first feature-length effort. Open Windows demonstrates that Vigalondo's ambition and imagination is undiminished, but he could do with a little more restraint.

The set-up has echoes of Rear Window and Phone Booth, as Elijah Wood's super-fan Nick (a supposed competition-winner in town for a meeting with his favourite actress) finds himself let down. The curiously London-accented "campaign manager" for said actress (equally curiously named Chord) gets in touch, but evidently has motives of his own as he begins to manipulate Nick. The situation gets increasingly disturbing as the suspiciously tech-savvy Chord continuously ups the ante. To summarise the plot from here would take as long as the film given the density of events and twists, but overall the story gets progressively more bonkers and convoluted before careering off the road in admittedly entertaining fashion.

Vigalondo might be too imaginative for his own good at times, and I'd class Open Windows as a noble failure, but it's entertaining nonetheless.

For most of its short running time, Open Windows is riveting. It involves a nebbishy guy who runs a website creepily devoted to an actress who finds himself pulled, step by step, into and insane and disastrous crime.

The movie begins on Nick's (Elijah Wood) laptop. He is messaged then given intrusive software that allows him to spy on the actress. As the movie progresses he gets in deeper and deeper; he is complicit for taking that first step but then is simply caught.

The film is cleverly shot entirely through screens open on the laptop. I'm not sure how this would work in the movie theater but it works great on TV.

The movie was written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, who specializes in elaborate twists, but after digging himself in deep in the first hour he can't find an elegant way to dig himself out again, and the last part of the movie is a long, convoluted mess that is like he was trying to get every twist ending he could think of in one movie.

I loved most of this movie, and would have rated it a 9 if it had all been as good as that first 70 minutes, but the last part is maybe a 5 or 6.

A final note: this would make a great video game. There's a fairly obscure adventure video game called The Experiment that involves doing everything through security cameras, and I would love to see something similar done with this.

Anyway, if you're a fan of Nacho, check it out. For all its issues it's pretty entertaining overall.

I hate writing bad reviews. I really do. Bad reviews aren't helpful and only serve to make well-meaning artists feel bad about their work. They worked hard on their piece. Submitted for your approval. "Open Windows" Overly complicated. Overacted. Overly stupid and in some choice "nuggets" of scenes, I found myself cringing from embarassement- you know the feeling, like when your chin gets pulled down to your neck and your face turns red? And yet I *still* gave it 7 stars. Why? It was weird fun and I stuck with it to see what happened next. There certainly are worse films for sure, but not too many "Golden Turkeys" like this one.

Review: I wasn't a big fan of this movie. I didn't have a clue what was going on half of the time because the plot kept on changing without much explanation. When it all came together at the end I was quite surprised with the outcome but I don't think that it was well put together. The director over complicated the movie and he made it go in different directions which just became annoying after a while. Anyway, the movie is about a man whose obsessed with an actress and when he finds out that he has won a contest to have dinner with her, he really can't believe that his dream has come true. When he finds out from a mysterious caller that she has cancelled the meal because she can't be bothered to go, the mysterious man offers him exclusive access to the actress life, via cameras and hacking into her laptop and phone. After snooping into her private life, he realises that the mysterious man isn't all that he seems and he's ends up trying to save  the actresses life whilst putting his own life in danger. Its an original concept but it's executed badly. Elijah Wood put in a good performance because he brought intensity throughout the whole film and he made the situation seem real. On the plus side, this movie does show how easy it is to get into people's private lives with ease but for entertainment, it could have been much better. Watchable but not that great!

Round-Up: Elijah Wood has taken on some weird projects since playing Frodo in the Lord of the Rings franchise, like Grand Piano, Maniac and Revenge For Jolly, and most of his films seem to go straight to DVD. At 34, I doubt that he would be happy with the way that his career has turned out after the major blockbuster but he has got a film with Vin Diesel coming out soon, called The Last Witch Hunter, so that might bring him back in the spotlight. The moody and dark settings in this movie, worked well with the subject matter but it seemed like the director lost the plot. Some of the clever camera work was impressive and I liked the use of the different computer windows throughout the movie but it's a shame that the script was so sketchy.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their thrillers about an man who obsessed with a famous actress and wins a competition to have dinner with her but he finds out that the dinner is off so he seeks revenge with the help from a mystery caller. 4/10

If you've seen "Timecrimes", a movie previously made by the same director (he did another one in between that and this one, which I haven't watched yet), you'd be excused by thinking that this is a mess. Looking at it and especially towards the end, the movie goes off the rails. It loses all sense and logic. Where "Timecrimes" makes sense in every aspect (although it's highly complex), this is far from it.

But, you can still have fun with this movie. A lot of fun actually, especially considering the nature and the way this is shot (found footage light/like). You might get sucked into the struggle of our main actor, who's seemingly trying his best to move forward and get through. This might be great a great role for Elijah Wood (and even for Sasha Grey, who's still trying to find her place away from the adult career she had), but it won't be for every viewer ... consider the plot, how the movie is made/shown (found footage over a web cam, but with several other cameras outside shown in those ... windows) and decide for yourself ...