Secret Window (2004)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Mort Rainey	Johnny Depp	½
John Shooter	John Turturro	½
Amy Rainey	Maria Bello	½
Ted Milner	Timothy Hutton
Ken Karsh	Charles S. Dutton	½

Review

Secret Window is essentially a classically built-up mystery-thriller. It's a "who dunnit" except that we know the "who" (apparently), and the "it" is not yet done. Johnny Depp stars in a role we've come accustomed to seeing him in – as the eccentric loner who is or is on the verge of becoming a social misfit. Depp works this role so well that we're instantly drawn to his character and spun into his world. What then is presented is a mystery – and a very 'Stephen Kingish' one at that (how many times have we seen King write a writer as his protagonist). But instead of focusing merely on solving the mystery, Secret Window is a very intelligent and thoughtful movie that first and foremost wants to explore and understand its characters. David Koepp directs with a brilliant sense of narrative tempo and, perhaps more surprisingly, an incredible sense for the visuals. Of course, with Depp, we also get a fair share of comedy, but the movie's main asset is its psychological drama, and that is – in the case of this film – just as thrilling as the scares.