Secret Window is David Koepp’s - one of Hollywood’s A-list scribes with recent entries like Spider Man and Panic Room - latest screenplay. I have to go on record saying that I haven’t read the original Stephen King short story (Secret Window, Secret Garden from Four Past Midnight) that this was based on, but from my ample experience of King’s work I can tell that it is likely intact. Koepp acted as director on this picture as well and I would like to say Secret Window is as much a success as his previous feature - the atmospheric Stir of Echoes - but alas I cannot.

This is very predictable fare, highlighted only by the always-reliable Johnny Depp who manages to turn this into another one of his character pieces. John Turturro and Maria Bello turn in good performances too (it’s good to see that she has rebounded from the abysmal Coyote Ugly with some solid work), but the rest of this entry is lackluster. I’m kind of surprised at Depp’s involvement in this because he usually picks projects that are a little more remarkable. I do see things in the character that he might have found interesting, but the film as a whole is not on par with his usual excellence.

Like I said, I can’t tell if it was the source material that is to blame for this, but it just seems that this story isn’t really interesting enough to be made into a film. The climax has been done so many times in the last few years. If you were going to pick something from Four Past Midnight to adapt, why not The Sun Dog? Now that’s a story with some visual potential that is screaming to be adapted, although it may be tough to stretch it out to feature length. Maybe that’s the problem with Secret Window, as well.

This may appeal to Johnny Depp fans – there were several groups of teenage girls at the theater for just that reason I suppose - but this is a rental to be sure. You can add this to the ever-growing list of pedestrian Stephen King adaptations.

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Copyright© Written By: Tom Servo
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