william ahearn
2021-05-18 22:59:33 UTC
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PermalinkWhat attracted me to this movie is Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Julianne Moore. What slowed me down was Joe Wright – who hasn't directed a film I really responded to – and Tracy Letts who – with the possible exception of William Friedkin's Bug – turns out stagey film scripts. This time he's outdone himself with a screenplay that is downright theatrical. Letts also plays a supporting role and he's just fine.
The premise has been done before in various guises with the most salient example being Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, although Josh Mann's Dystopia is another derivative example. There's a agoraphobic woman in a window – and no sign of Fritz Lang – with a camera with a long lens and she isn't only a psychologist, she's also a voyeur. She's been spying on her neighbors and what she sees – ala Cornell Woolrich – had to be murder.
Everyone who comes in contact with her believes that she is crazy as the person she thinks has been murdered apparently hasn't. The people across the street – where the murder supposedly occurred – vehemently deny that any murder has occurred. The murder – that the audience also witnesses – is the crux of this story that is billed as a “psychological drama.”
That is the gist and I'll leave it there. It isn't very psychological and it isn't – even for a moment – credible in any sense. Jennifer Jason Leigh is completely wasted and even Gary Oldman is bad and I didn't think that was possible. Usually, I write about films that I like or are interesting or that I think movie lovers will appreciate. This isn't one of them.