The latest Johnny Depp vehicle,
”
Secret Window,
”
may not be billed with the same self-importance that accompanies
ABC’s
”
Stephen King’s The Kingdom Hospital,
”
but its source is King nevertheless
– one of the four novellas that comprise his 1991 work,
”
Four Past Midnight.
”
The latest Johnny Depp vehicle, “Secret Window,” may not be billed with the same self-importance that accompanies ABC’s “Stephen King’s The Kingdom Hospital,” but its source is King nevertheless – one of the four novellas that comprise his 1991 work, “Four Past Midnight.”
The story is about author Morton Rainey (Johnny Depp), who lives in a cabin in the woods following a separation from his wife (Maria Bello).
One morning, a mysterious man from Mississippi appears by the name of John Shooter (John Turturro), and assaults Rainey for plagiarizing and publishing a story that he had written years ago.
The conflict between them escalates as Rainey insists upon his innocence, while Shooter tires to coerce Rainey into changing the ending from the published edition to the ending in Shooter’s version of the story.
For those of you who have followed Depp religiously since “21 Jump Street,” you’ll know that his films fall into two categories: oddball masterpieces and movies that should have been better but that are made bearable by his consistently brilliant acting.
In the former category, we find “Edward Scissorhands” (1990), “Ed Woods” (1994), “Dead Man” (1995), “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998), and Pirates of the Caribbean” (2003) to name a few.
In the latter, we find “Blow” (2001), “From Hell” (2001), “Sleepy Hollow” (1999), The Ninth Gate (1999), and the unmentionables, “Nick of Time” (1995) and “The Astronaut’s Wife” (1995).
Depp is brilliant because he has the uncanny ability to physically transform himself into his characters, to develop a grammar of body language that reflects character psychology and to do something very rare indeed: to be captivating on-screen without the need of other actors to communicate with.
This last element seems to have been a key factor for “Secret Window” director David Koepp, given the lengthy scenes in which Depp is left alone in his cabin, as well as the interplay between character and inner monologue that proliferates throughout the film.
Unfortunately, Depp is the only brilliant actor at work here – with no disrespect to the rest of the cast. The film fails to develop the other characters in any particularly interesting way, which makes the casting of Oscar winner Timothy Hutton and up-and-comer Maria Bello all but irrelevant. Their characters are generic, which significantly undercuts the impact of what should have been a sensational ending.
Turturro, whose brilliance was demonstrated in “Quiz Show” (1994) and “Barton Fink” (1991), here seems to parody his far more engaging performance from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (2000). And Charles S. Dutton obviously needs a better agent if he is stuck playing stock characters reserved for the no-namers that normally fill out the roster for studio thrillers.
Luckily for us, Depp is the focal point of the story, which is dependent on a complex, quirky and empathetic protagonist. Unfortunately for the film, thrillers rely on more than just one character, and the best often shift the point of identification around so that the villain produces some form of affect or sympathy in the viewer.
What would “Notorious” (1946) have been without Claude Rains’ emotional vulnerability for Ingrid Bergman? Or “Silence of the Lambs” (1991) without Anthony Hopkins’ eloquence and perverse sense of etiquette?
Additionally, thrillers need to create some kind of sympathy for the victims – we need to care for the characters who die, or who are in peril of being killed.
Janet Leigh’s death in Psycho (1960) is the most famous, but what about Sean Connery in “The Untouchables” (1987)? Richard Farnsworth in “Misery” (1990)? Scatman Crowthers in “The Shining” (1980)?
Victims can be just as important as heroes and villains in just about every genre, and that is ultimately “Secret Window’s” undoing, because the film is a one-character virtuoso.
The best Stephen King stories are defined by psychologically complex characters (including the victims) who are morally ambiguous, find themselves in horrific circumstances and whose dilemmas are empathetic. “Carrie,” “The Shining,” “The Stand,” “The Green Mile,” and “The Gunslinger” all exemplify the work of a master writer.
Unfortunately, King writes too much and this has produced a dilemmas of his own: What fears are there left to write about that he hasn’t already dealt with in previous works?
Too many of King’s later novels and short stories are reductive to the grotesque, hence the transition away from psychologically complex characters and more towards the monstrous.
The novella “Secret Window, Secret Garden” doesn’t fall into this trend, but it does deal with issues already explored in both “The Dark Half” and “The Shining.” Perhaps that’s why he refrained from writing it as a novel.
As a result, a story that worked very nicely in novella form feels underdeveloped as a film. This may be because in the thriller film, unlike the novella, we need to identify with more than just the main character in order for the genre to be exciting to us.
Previous adaptations of King novellas such as “The Body” (which became “Stand by Me” (1986)) and “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” worked as films in part because they were character studies and not thrillers.
To the film’s credit, the director had the guts to carry the story to its crucial, unflinching ending. The typical thriller these days all too often lacks the strength of its own convictions, turning the climax into a grab bag of cliches, last minute rescues and laughably bad denouements.
As stated in the preview for “Secret Garden,” the most important part is the ending, which is slightly undercut here because of the previously mentioned lack of well-developed supporting characters. The ending seems particularly to be the whole point of why the story was written in the first place, so it’s refreshing to see that it wasn’t tampered with by happy-ending obsessed studio producers.
When you see a more original ending like this actually happening, you wonder why so many lame thrillers end in the exact same manner, every single time.
This film is an excellent opportunity to see how Depp takes an average character and makes him memorable without the guiding hand of a brilliant director or an off-the-wall scenario.
It also helps to expose the predictability of the average thriller, as well as what key aspects of the genre affect us the most.
Like too many films these days, “Secret Window” is somewhere between a good film and a bad film. I’ve heard people describe it as a “solid” film, which to my mind means that it was entertaining enough to warrant paying to see it.
But if you don’t find yourself going to the movies on a regular basis, treat yourself to something that transcends “solid,” perhaps the intellectually stimulating, Oscar-winning documentary “The Fog of War” (2003), or the subversive, hilarious European comedy “Good bye, Lenin!” (2003).
