A Janela Secreta

Secret Window's tag line – "Some windows should never be opened" – is so snarkily appropriate in its unintentional damning of this ridiculously overwrought psychothriller that it's a wonder some smart underling at Columbia hasn't leapfrogged up the studio ladder by pointing it out to the powers that be. Their error is the critics' gain, though, and even the presence of Johnny Depp, as novelist Mort Rainey, can't save this film from its own unintended melodramatics. Secret Window lacks a B-movie sucker punch, and by the final reel it degenerates into a hackneyed mishmash of obvious revelations and cheap, ineffective horror theatrics despite Depp's mangy fun. There's no car crash in this one as in his current television project Kingdom Hospital and much of his recent writing – King penned it before that wayward van almost took him out of the running forever – but the film itself is an effective enough metaphor for out-of-control bs that frankly was part and parcel of King's novella from page one.

Secret window is a quite entertaining movie with an intrigue story line. From the very beginning, you feel engaged and wonder what will happen next. However, the ending is very very cliché and a big let down. A promising suspense movie that blows it at the finale. I wish they worked out the ending and come up with a better one. If you noticed, the lead actress here was playing in the "pay back". There she was the lover of the hero who was betrayed by his wife. Here she plays the betrayer. A twist of faith. If nothing, Secret Window is worth watching just for Depp. Also I like Charless Dutton as always, although his role here is limited. (I don't know what is with this guy, he is so sympathetic and fills every role he is in)

Johnny Depp plays Mort Rainey, a writer with wife problems. Mort secludes himself in a wilderness cabin to write. Soon, he gets a visit from a strange Southern mountain man named John Shooter (John Turturro). Throughout most of the plot, Mort tries to deal with this threatening man who won't go away, and confronts his wife and her new lover.

"Secret Window" is a moody, Hitchcockian thriller with a major story twist. Pacing is slow. There's lots of waiting for something to happen, which enhances a sense of foreboding. And Depp's performance is terrific.

With hair that looks like a mop, and a delightfully slovenly appearance, Mort mopes around the cabin, talks to his nearly blind dog, and tries to placate Mr. Shooter. He also spends a lot of time on the phone, mostly with Shooter and with his disconsolate wife.

Casting and acting are fine. Production design is great; love that cabin where Mort lives. Camera work, lighting, special effects, CGI, and editing are all quite good.

Although I liked the film's twist, some viewers will be disappointed with it, perhaps because the underlying idea is not terribly original. The risk for the director is that the entire story hinges on this one twist. If a viewer discovers the twist ahead of time, or finds it unsatisfying for any reason, the viewer likely will render a negative verdict on the entire film.

My only serious complaint with the film is that, at times, the plot discards logic so as to maximize gratuitous violence, the result no doubt of the film's source material, a horror story by Stephen King.

Overall, "Secret Window" is a generally fine thriller, enhanced especially by the splendid performance of Johnny Depp. Just be aware that one's reaction to this film likely will depend on one's perception of the story's major plot twist.

Not exactly a memorable or path-breaking movie of its genre, 'Secret Window' does manage to be fun to an extent. The story is easily predictable and there are plenty of unintentionally funny moments (which were supposed to provide thrills). It is pretty much just another thriller but the locations (especially the landscape and nature round the lake house) are very pleasing to look at and the cinematography is quite impressive, even though it's highly overdone in the end sequence. The way the 'revelation' is displayed towards the end is hilarious and overly dramatic. Perhaps 'Secret Window' would have worked better had it been more subtle. The plot holes do not provide much advantage to the film. Johnny Depp is great at what he's given to do but the role itself suffers from poor writing. Torturro is adequate. The supporting cast are just there. They don't contribute much and the actors are just okay. If it weren't for Depp and the nice lakeside view, this would be just another mediocre thriller

I've seen psychological thriller's that try to scare you more than melt your brain, this one I'm proud to say does both. It's a very, very malicious and haunting thrill machine. I t brings the very essence of how horror and Psycho thriller's are suppose to be done, not with over the top gore and CGI, but with old school conventional means.

Secret Window is as sinister as it is smart it rolls along at a very steady pace and brings more to the table than what was required. It shows you what the decent into madness and utter chaos looks like, it shows you the depth and moral ambiguities of a torn man who's lost everything. With that said you can examine the physic of the mind as it cracks under extreme and constant pressure and how your choices do affect who you help, or who you hurt. This film's pace and dark style is meant to reflect horror films of the 40's, 50's, 60's and early 70's before gore became cool but that makes this film such a joy to watch and study. And that makes it a great film, not a good film, a great film.

Johnny Depp( who was fantastic here.) gives a very eccentric and brilliant performance as the conflicted writer Mort Rainey, John Turturro does exceptionally well as the sinister and vicious Shooter and he almost outclasses Depp in this film. Charles S. Dutton does well with the few scenes he's. But the main let down and I think the reason for this film's poor reviews from critics were the bland and very lame performances of Timothy Hutton( he won an Oscar he can do better than this.) and Maria Bello, they really lowered the caliber and class of this film and forced Depp to try harder to make them look good and make there time on screen with him good, but he succeeds and they fail. But Turturro and Depp hold up strong.

Secret Window is a very Keene and captivating psychological/horror thriller that is surefire mind boggling entertainment and out of this world fun. This movie is great rainy day entertainment or any day entertainment for that matter it's just all around a fantastic and mind boggling film that makes you question the sanity of writers and the world they live in ( speaking as one myself.) it brings to question as the thoughts in our mind really our conscious or our selves just speaking out to right the wrongs doe against us It's a film that ask those questions and then you have to answer. All in all Secret Window was a sinister, malicious and thought provoking film that delivers a movie going experience like no other.