La donna alla finestra

Amy Adams stars in "The Woman in the Window" from 2021 (actually made in 2018), along with Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger,Julianne Moore,Jennifer Jason Leigh, Wyatt Russell, and Brian Tyree Henry. The screenplay is by Tracy Letts.

First things first, I didn't read the book, so my review will have nothing to do with it.

Anna Fox is a child psychologist, who, after a tragedy, has become an agoraphobic, pill-popping alcoholic who lives in a dark New York City house with her cat, Punch. She spies on her neighbors and checks them out on the Internet.

She befriends a boy from across the street, Ethan (Hechinger) who brings her a gift from his mother. Later, a woman (Julianne Moore) visits Anna. She seems to be Ethan's mother, Jane Russell.

Anna is uneasy about Ethan, because after watching their apartment, she thinks his father is intimidating and worries about the boy. The, through her window, she sees Jane stabbed by someone.

However, the police don't believe her. Jane's husband (Russell) is livid with her and introduces her to his wife Jane (Leigh) - obviously not the woman Anna met. Despite her protests to the police, Anna is clearly written off as a nut.

I actually thought this a very good and effective film. I mentioned Copycat in my subject - I am referring to a very good film starring Sigourney Weaver from some years back. There were elements of it, as well as the obvious homage to Rear Window and the Stanwyck film Witness to Murder.

In short, The Woman in the Window is derivative, but still good, with quite a surprising ending. I thought the acting was terrific. Amy Adams, a very pretty woman, manages to look bloated with bags under her eyes in this, which is perfect for the role.

One thing I loved were the film references, to Dark Passage, Laura, and Spellbound, as well as the name "Jane Russell", and that spiral staircase that screamed Vertigo.

I highly recommend this film. I know people who read the book hated it, but if you didn't, I think you'll like it.

A housebound woman witnesses a brutal act in the house opposite, but is all as it seems?

I have read the book, it's a great book, this is a moderately good adaptation of it. The issue here, was the pacing, at times it felt very dragged out, with some overlong scenes, and crazily long pauses, there's tension, and then there's overly slow, this couldn't find the balance.

We've had the woman on the train, and at times this just felt like a rehashed version of that, only that was much better.

I did think the acting was first rate, and despite such an illustrious cast, I did think that Amy Adams was the real standout.

It's watchable, I wanted it to be great, 6/10.

I don't get the bad reviews, although I gotta admit I haven't read the book. But as a movie itself, it was a good one, with a twist and a twisted character.

This movie is a missed opportunity with the plot being unconvincing. All the supporting characters in the movie also displayed behaviors that I found very unnatural .

A poor screenplay usually yields disappointment, and a low rating attached to my review - and this adapted screenplay is undeniably flawed.

However, the excellent performances of the ensemble of top-line actors in 'The Woman In The Window' makes viewing this long-anticipated movie worth the invested time, and gets a rare hall-pass from me.

Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography helps immensely, delivering unique scene structure and cinematic camera techniques that pay homage at large to Alfred Hitchcock, and the story itself paralleling one of his most critically acclaimed films 'Rear Window'.

Hitchcock was a filmmaker's filmmaker, and Delbonnel pays tribute by unabashedly utilizing a large number of classic Hitchcockian (and Bergman) camera techniques to set the film's overall suspense tone, build tension and anticipation, establish metaphors, and bring the viewer into the thinking and emotions of the protagonist (eg. Spiraling stairwell scenes, bokeh close-ups, half-face shadowing, elevated camera angles, surreal imagery, dead-silent eye-contact moments, etc.), that add viewing-value.

But this film was disappointing in its story telling, especially in its ending where I'm guessing scenes were left on the editing floor. Perhaps the reason the film took so long to release were triage-attempts to re-edit the story back into the film...this almost never works.

Regardless, for me the experience of viewing such deft retro artistic filmmaking, and witnessing the superb acting performances by this highly capable cast (led by Amy Adams👏), was enough to garner a passing grade from me, and a recommendation to view.