Directed by: David Koepp
Produced by: Gavin Polone and Ezra Swerdlow
Cast: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton and Charles Dutton
Some windows should never be opened. Ja, and some screenplays should never get the green light. Johnny Depp and Stephen King. What could go wrong with David Koepp’s Secret Window?
Book to movie adaptations seem to be a pretty standard affair when it comes to Stephen King novels. Ranging from Carrie through to Thinner (when King was writing as Richard Bachman) to Misery, Hollywood has always had a wide variety of choices and many number of reasons to line Mr. King’s pockets even further. Sometimes the adaptations have been great (Kubrick’s The Shining and The Shawshank Redemption), sometimes not so good (Pet Cemetery) and most times, pretty terrible (Graveyard Shift).
And it is with this in mind that I would love the opportunity to ask David Koepp, why he would want to adapt a novella like King’s Secret Window, Secret Garden? Not having read the novella I’m in no position to pass judgment on the text, so the film is my only area of concern. However, I can’t help but feel the novella must have sucked, because David Koepp is a fairly accomplished scriptwriter. If you’ve seen the poster for Secret Window then you will know that he wrote Panic Room, and he was responsible for the final screenplay that resulted in Spiderman (as well as numerous other blockbusters). So what went wrong?
Johnny Depp is Mort Rainey, a writer suffering from writer’s block who recently separated from his cheating wife (Maria Bello). Mort now spends all his time in a cabin in the wilderness, just outside of New York. Trying to write, trying not to smoke and sleeping hours on end. He’s not taking his separation well. Matters get worse when a hick (John Turturro) from the south arrives on his porch and accuses him of plagiarism. He gives Mort an ultimatum, prove that he didn’t steal his story in three days and he’ll go away, but if he can’t then he’s going to make Mort pay.
Quite an interesting and simple setup for a film, but as soon as you see mirrors and the camera moves through one of those mirrors, with the reflected world becoming the real world, then you can be sure it won’t be as simple as you originally thought. Which is exactly what I expect from a Stephen King inspired tale. I want mystery.
The problem is, in Secret Window, you’ve seen this kind of mystery many times before. There isn’t much that is new here to get you excited. The solving of the “mystery”, or reveal, is also a real let down. And, it happens so quickly and without suspense that I found myself asking, “Is that it?” I wasn’t even given time to identify or even contemplate what was going on.
Negative points aside, Johnny Depp (as usual) puts in a great performance, as does the supporting cast of Turturro, Bello and Hutton. I can only imagine how uninspiring this film would have been without this talented cast on board. So what did go wrong? Maybe Koepp had a contract to fulfill, or maybe he just really, really liked this story, maybe Depp talked him into it? We’ll never know, but one thing I’m pretty sure of is that this movie isn’t really worth your money, or your time.
Christo Oberholzer
