REVIEW The Woman in the Window
Amy Adams excels in a thriller whose complexities are painfully banal.
The Woman in the Window is one of those movies we kept hearing about for years: based on a bestselling novel (by an author whose own life would make for a fascinating film), directed by Joe Wright, scripted by Tracy Letts and starring Amy Adams. All excellent ingredients, save for one detail: the film was also stuck in a limbo, having arrived on Netflix a year and a half after it was initially supposed to hit theaters.
Developed by what is now 20th Century Studios, the film was supposed to premiere in October 2019, but got postponed to May 2020 because of reshoots that were mandated due to negative test audience feedback. Said reshoots were handled by Tony Gilroy at least as far as the writing is concerned, and Letts, who also has a cameo in the movie, publicly expressed his disappointment at not being asked to be present for rewrites (based on his comments, we can assume the scene he appears in remained unaltered).
Then the pandemic hit and, after much strategizing, Disney – now the owner of 20th Century Studios – decided to sell the film to Netflix. Presumably there was a contractual issue at stake (if they hadn’t sold it, the movie would most likely have ended up on HBO Max, due to a preexisting deal granting it all Fox/Searchlight movies developed before the merger with Disney, up to 2022), but one could also sense trouble was brewing: on the surface, this was a film so commercially unviable even a token theatrical release (like the one Disney did for The New Mutants last year) seemed like a bad idea.
Sadly, the finished product very much confirms that impression, despite the promise of the set-up: Adams plays Anna, a woman who suffers from agoraphobia as the result of an accident and hasn’t left her apartment since that event. Her husband (Anthony Mackie) relocated with the couple’s daughter but remains in touch via telephone. As Anna spends her days drinking and taking her meds, her social life is essentially limited to visits from her womanizing tenant David (Wyatt Russell). This all changes when she thinks she witnessed foul play in the neighbors’ apartment and goes to great lengths to prove she isn’t wrong.
Yes, it’s Rear Window with a twist, and while not particularly original, the novel is a very entertaining read (though not as entertaining as subsequent revelations about author A.J. Finn, a serial fabulist who faked a tumor and two major deaths in the family). This doesn’t translate on the screen, and while it is fair to assume some of the less inspired choices were a result of the reshoots (the dénouement deviates slightly from the source material and feels like a focus group creation), it’s hard not to think perhaps this just wasn’t the right material for some of the people involved.
Specifically, Wright’s direction is elegant but ponderous, rarely engaging with the elements that could – and should - be fun to watch (one plot twist’s impact is greatly reduced as a result of this). He’s very adept at handling the character study of a traumatized woman, but comes across as being out of his element when the more pulpy, potboiler factors come into play.
Adams is predictably excellent, but the same can’t be said for some of her costars: while Russell gives it his all, Mackie’s performance is quite literally phoned in, and Gary Oldman’s lack of interest is obvious by virtue of his choice to use his normal accent and not really do anything with the character. And whether it was always on the cards or a byproduct of post-production tinkering, casting Julianne Moore and Jennifer Jason Leigh in throwaway parts that amount to little more than extended cameos is a bigger crime than the one perpetrated in the film.
Under the right circumstances, this could have been a nice little thriller with plenty of appeal for audiences who want non-blockbustery mainstream entertainment at the movies. In its current form, it’s the kind of thing one watches on Netflix just because it’s readily available and not particularly demanding (at the time of writing, it’s ranked at #3 in the Top 10 most watched titles on the service in my area). It’s disposable genre fiction, and not in a good way.
The Woman in the Window (USA 2021, 101 minutes)
Director: Joe Wright
Writer: Tracy Letts, based on the novel by A.J. Finn
Producers: Eli Bush, Anthony Katagas, Scott Rudin
Music: Danny Elfman
Cast: Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Anthony Mackie, Brian Tyree Henry, Tracy Letts
Distributor: Netflix (streaming)