The Woman in the Window
Summary:
Dr. Anna Fox is a child psychologist who has become a recluse after becoming agoraphobic and not being able to leave her house. While spending much time in her house she begins to keep tabs on her neighbours. When a new family moves in across the street she begins to take a particular interest in the family and even meets the son named Ethan and the wife named Jane. One night while watching through her window she witnesses a terrible act of violence. She tries to solve the mystery of what happened but Anna doesn’t know who to trust nor who will believe her.
Characters:
Dr. Anna Fox is a child psychologist who has agoraphobia, the fear of leaving safe spaces. For her, her safe space is her house. After her husband and child left her, Anna spends most her days on medication, drinking, and watching her neighbours from her window. Moving in from across the street, the Russels move in. Ethan is a child of fifteen years of age, and he harbours some pain. Alistair is the father and has issues with control. Jane is the wife who seems to be skittish and all over the place.
Austin: 8.2/10
The Woman in the Window is a very intriguing film. The first 35 ish minutes are bad. No way around it. It starts super slow, with very little development of any kind. It feels like setup for the rest of the movie, but the setup never pans out and it ends up going in another direction. The meaningful setup could have taken 5 minutes, and instead, it was super boring.
Once you survive the opening 35 minutes, this movie gets much, much better. The pace picks up, it turns into a mystery thriller real fast. The twists and turns come hard and fast, and it becomes a really captivating movie. The entire film feels unnerving, and the camera angles are set up to make you feel uncomfortable. I thought that was awesome. The plot finally shows its face, and it is really good. It’s a little bit weird, and a lot dark, but it fits the vibe of the movie. This is a perfect example of something you naturally don’t want to watch but can’t take your eyes off of. The characters are really well written, and the acting is even better. The lack of plot or meaning in the first half an hour is a huge misstep, but the rest of the movie is pretty good. I would have loved more plot development or even more story after the ending, but the decent hour and 15 minutes were good enough.
This is a pretty decent movie, and if you can get through the opening scenes, it’s an enjoyable movie. It is pretty gruesome and definitely creepy, but a captivating watch. There’s honestly a ton of better movies in these genres to watch, but if you are craving something new with Amy Adams, go check this one out.
Nathanyal: 8.0/10
The first thing I should mention is that I have very mixed feelings about this movie. On one hand, the beginning was long and boring, and it didn’t really do much. On the other, the fallout after all the build up was pretty satisfactory and had me on the edge of my seat. Let’s jump into this, shall we?
Alright, the negatives, and there’s really only one big one and a few small ones. The beginning. The long beginning. For a movie that has a 1 hour and 41-minute run time, half an hour was taken by the beginning. Yes, the beginning established characters and relations for later in the movie, but they could have done that in less time. If I’m honest, it was kind of hard to watch that first little bit. Another small negative was the dialogue near the beginning. Yes, it was to simulate an uncomfortable situation, but sometimes it felt like a little too much. I guess that whole opening part just put a weird feeling to the whole movie.
Now, after the beginning and rolling into the middle, some actions happen in the plot and all of a sudden, everything starts moving faster. And it was at this point, where the movie got exponentially better. Instead of being slow, and kind of boring, suspense was in the air and I felt myself being as frantic as the protagonist. After that point, as Anna tries to uncover some truth, I started theorizing what exactly happened. Probing my mind like that helped me enjoy the movie more when I was proven right or wrong. The cinematography and acting were also pretty spot on. The weird and odd camera angles helped the uneasy atmosphere, and all the actors played their roles in a very convincing manner.
Overall, this was a conflicting one for me. The boring was slow and a bit painful to watch, but the release of the buildup was entertaining and interesting. If you can get over a 30-minute buildup, then this might be a movie for you. If not, then maybe steer clear of this one.
Sebastian: 7.7/10
This movie is perfectly easy to separate into three parts. A boring opening that I really didn’t get into. A really interesting and intriguing middle that made the beginning almost worth it. Finally a satisfying yet at the same time disappointing ending that ended the movie on a not great note. To start with what I liked I thought the acting was really good and everyone had really strong performances no matter the size of their role with Amy Adams really doing a good job in the lead role and being one of the things that kept me engaged. The premise itself is interesting as a concept with a mystery that needs to be solved but the person trying to solve it is confined to a specific location for one reason or another. Another positive is that the mystery itself is pretty solid and I was curious what actually happened in the story. The sense of unease that the film had really made it better overall and I liked how Anna Fox’s depression and mental instability made the audience question everything that happened at all times in the story. The cinematography was really quite good with many interesting shots and angles used to convey the uneasiness of the situation.
My negatives mostly have to do with pacing as I mentioned at the beginning with the film’s poor flow and the fact that the middle is the best part is the middle and that is mostly due to shock. While the reveals are interesting and add to the story I don’t know if they would be as good upon a second viewing. Now I am a man who loves to rewatch movies multiple times a year so I don’t easily get bored of watching the same story over and over again but I don’t think I could do it with this film. I don’t think its mystery and plot is strong enough for me to want to see it all again and I think it might even feel surface level if not for the shock. The beginning was slow and drawn out with so little happening that it lost my attention once or twice and while like I said the middle did make it better I had a real problem with the end. I just felt like very little was actually resolved and I wanted more, it felt quite abrupt the way it ended and it made me like the film less.
All in all, this is a pretty mixed bag that I honestly don’t think I would recommend. While it does have interesting and really shocking moments I felt that the whole was not a satisfying experience. If you’re looking for something new to watch it’s not the worst film you could put on as there are good elements. So hop on Netflix and see for yourself.
