Engaging thriller laced with uneasy tension.
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03/11/04
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Secret Window (2004)
46
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:155
Fresh:72
Rotten:83
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: Depp is quirkily entertaining, but the movie runs out of steam by the end.
Theatrical Release:Mar 12, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $47,781,388
Synopsis: Based on a Stephen King novella, the psychological thriller SECRET WINDOW is reminiscent of an Alfred Hitchcock film. Eccentric author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) finds his life spiraling out of... [More]
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Charles S. Dutton
Director: David Koepp
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Reviews for Secret Window
There are contrivances of convenience in Secret Window, all of which keep the movie from ending too soon.
03/11/04
Top CriticLike Lon Chaney or Buster Keaton, Depp tosses off endless bits of physical business as if they were little poems.
03/12/04
It provides no thrills, no remotely sympathetic characters and -- despite a tortuous plot that goes to great lengths to trick the audience -- no surprises.
03/11/04
Bravo for the revival of the smart thriller.
03/10/04
Taken within its genre, it's a terrifically fun ride.
03/11/04
The standout is John Turturro, who makes Shooter a terrifying individual.
03/11/04
Top CriticIt's a slight story to begin with, and the movie teeters on camp with its jokey filler material.
03/12/04
Top CriticA corny goosepimpler for genre gourmets who wish more drive-in flicks were made with a crafty cinematic élan.
03/11/04
The pieces fit together easily, too easily, in fact, which sets you up for the grand finale.
03/13/04
What we've got here is a Sunday night on-the-network style movie with an acting virtuoso (Johnny Depp) raising the mundane material to viewable, enjoyable, fun.
03/11/04
Not even Depp can quite save the relentless obviousness and preposterous turns.
03/12/04
Top CriticWriter-Director Koepp well understood the best qualities of the story and held back the almost demeaning payoff as long as he could.
03/28/04
A pastiche of past thrillers, recycling its elements from The Shining, Misery, The Dark Half and just about every other King project this side of The Mangler.
03/22/04
Secret Window is an intense thriller, adapted from a novella by Stephen King, that presents a rounded anatomy of resentment and anger.
03/11/04
Secret Window is taut, credible, and thoroughly entertaining, and features another eccentric -- and uncommonly good -- performance from Johnny Depp.
03/16/04
Bottom line, it's extremely predictable, even if you didn't read the original novella.
03/24/04
[Depp's] readings and body language . . . comment on the action with a wry snarkiness that is, in the end, the only thing worth watching
03/10/04
This is, in short, a mystery story that has very little actual mystery.
10/11/06
Johnny Depp and John Turturro are so damned good that the whole thing (well, most of it) is entirely engaging.
03/12/04
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