"The Woman in the Window" pretends to be a Hitchcock movie. And it is very beautiful

Joe Wright's detective thriller The Woman in the Window, starring Amy Adams, was released on Netflix on May 14. The movie made its way to streaming through production hell. At first, due to failed test screenings, the picture was abandoned at 20th Century Studios. After that, the tape had to actually be removed again.

Then "The Woman in the Window" undertook to produce the studio of Walt Disney, but also changed her mind. Subsequently, due to the pandemic, the premiere of the finished film was moved several times and, finally, the rights to Netflix were sold.

The plot, based on the novel of the same name by A. J. Finn, tells the story of former child psychologist Anna Fox (Amy Adams). A woman suffers from agoraphobia - a fear of open spaces, so she has not left the house for a long time and escapes boredom, looking at other people's windows through binoculars.

One day, Alistair Russell (Gary Oldman) enters the building opposite with his wife Jane (Julianne Moore) and their teenage son (Fred Hechinger). The recluse finds a common language with the mother of the family, but soon becomes a witness to the murder - her new friend is stabbed by an unknown person. From now on, Anna's life is turned upside down: the police do not believe her testimony, and she herself is already beginning to doubt what she saw.

A plausible account of a mental disorder

British director Joe Wright takes on a variety of genres, be it a biography of Winston Churchill ("Dark Times") or even an action-packed thriller ("Hannah. The Ultimate Weapon"). However, most of all he became famous as the author of costume films and film adaptations of book classics ("Pride and Prejudice", "Anna Karenina"). Wright has never worked on detective stories and even more so thrillers, but in his piggy bank there is a story of a musician suffering from schizophrenia ("The Soloist").

Shot from the film "The Woman in the Window"

We can confidently say that the director again perfectly conveyed the feelings of a person with a mental illness. So, agoraphobes are afraid not only to leave their apartment, but also that in case of trouble they will not receive help. Therefore, the heroine always keeps a phone close at hand and even sleeps with it, and in any danger she immediately grabs it. And terribly panics when the mobile is not in place.

The director also helps the director to immerse the viewer in the emotional state of Anna, the artistic means, in particular the sound design. By the way, the famous Danny Elfman worked on the music. Especially for the picture, the composer wrote a slightly old-fashioned soundtrack, like in noir detectives. Such a melody perfectly complements what is happening and reminds of the great cinema of the past, to which Joe Wright is clearly trying to pay tribute.

At the same time, watching a film is uncomfortable: the viewer is literally prevented from being in silence. The TV, car wipers, radio is noisy, and even the characters are constantly interrupting each other, and the music is superimposed on their cues. Because of this, it sometimes seems that you are going crazy with the heroine.

Inventive visuals with references to old cinema

According to the plot, Anna cannot leave the house, but this does not mean at all that the film is static or boring. A variety of camera techniques do not let you get bored and, in addition, add the necessary touches to the atmosphere of growing madness. The camera of Bruno Delbonnel, a favorite of Tim Burton, dives from the air or shows the heroes through barred windows. Moreover, the visual range seems to be deliberately redundant, and in the frame everything changes every second.

The color palette is also incredibly beautiful: calm blue conveys home comfort, anxious yellow appears in the most poignant moments, and the main character's room - her personal comfort zone - is made in shades of pink.

Another interesting find of the director is the numerous references to old movies, which we mentioned above. Even the plot of the film itself refers to the legendary "Window to the Courtyard" by Alfred Hitchcock, where the hero also watched the life of his neighbors. And closer to the finale, one of the characters in The Woman in the Window wielding a kitchen knife, like Norman Bates in Psycho. In addition, it is impossible not to recall the "apartment trilogy" by Roman Polanski ("Disgust", "The Tenant", "Rosemary's Baby"), whose characters slowly went crazy in their homes.

Sometimes the references Joe Wright inserts are not just a tribute to the past, but also an element of the atmosphere. For example, Anna likes to look at old black and white paintings. And this alone in the course of the development of the plot raises doubts in the viewer: did the woman come up with her guest under the impression of the Hollywood actress Jane Russell?

Well, in the second third, the picture, oddly enough, suddenly becomes similar to "Anna Karenina" by the same Joe Wright, where the characters lived their lives literally on the stage. And this episode looks a little strange, but insanely beautiful.

Amy Adams' sincere play and an overkill ending

Amy Adams, whose beauty in "The Woman in the Window" is carefully hidden by makeup, is not the first time playing depressive heroines with a difficult past ("Arrival", "Sharp Objects"). And she does it magnificently: it is impossible not to believe her despair or not to sympathize when the police question her sanity.

The rest of the actors pale against her background, even the amazing Gary Oldman, although in this case it is not his fault: the artist was simply given few lines. Julianne Moore and Anthony Mackie have even less screen time, who appear in the film for a few minutes and also in secondary roles.

But “The Woman in the Window” also has drawbacks that prevent it from becoming the perfect film. First of all, this is a weak detective intrigue. The ending of the film is easy to predict, and an attentive viewer will most likely very quickly understand who the killer is. And the reclusiveness of the main character was explained in a very banal way.

Well, the finale seemed to have been completed in a hurry. If the main part of the picture delighted with suspense and gave a real visual pleasure, then at the end there is a sharp change in the scenery. Moreover, it was filmed as if we were facing the ending at best of the most ordinary series, and not an interesting work of authorship.

If you look at the ratings of the film, then ordinary viewers and film critics seemed to stand on opposite sides of the barricades. Say, on the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing the review, THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW is visible a huge difference between the percentage of critics and viewers' ratings (27% versus 73%). It's hard to say what caused it. But it is quite possible that the professionals were skeptical in advance, knowing about the production mess associated with the picture.

However, due to the low ratings of the press, it is definitely not worth skipping the "Woman in the Window". This is a completely worthwhile film with great actors, which does not do anything revolutionary, but just gives a pleasant hour and a half.