Product Description

Academy Award® nominee Johnny Depp (2003 Best Actor Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) gives his most riveting performance in this action/suspense thriller featuring a top-notch cast including John Turturro Maria Bello Academy Award® winner Timothy Hutton (1981 Best Supporting Actor Ordinary People) and Charles S. Dutton. Following a bitter separation from his wife (Bello) famed mystery writer Mort Rainey (Depp) is unexpectedly confronted at his remote lake house by a dangerous stranger named John Shooter (Turturro). Claiming Rainey has plagiarized his short story the psychotic Shooter demands justice. When Shooter's demands turn to threats - and then murder - Rainey turns to a private detective (Dutton) for help. But when nothing stops the horror from spiraling out of control Rainey soon discovers he can't trust anyone or anything. A shocking psychological thriller from the writer of Panic Room David Koepp.System Requirements:Running Time: 104 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396036635 Manufacturer No: 03663

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6734 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-06-22
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com
Johnny Depp gets high off another acting challenge in this tricky adaptation of a Stephen King yarn. Although the mood is too sinister to allow for the mischief of his Pirates of the Caribbean turn, Depp still manages to embroider his role here with plenty of quirky business. He plays a writer, depressed and nearly divorced, who's stuck in an isolated cabin (shades of The Shining) when a stranger (John Turturro) arrives, accusing him of plagiarism. Writer-director David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) does his best to make the rickety material compelling--he gets the maximum out of the cabin set, for instance--but the problems inherent in the King story eventually win out. The climactic scenes are particularly unpleasant, especially in contrast to the cleverness of Depp's performance. A Philip Glass score adds class, but this one ultimately feels like a disappointment. --Robert Horton

DVD features
Be sure to watch Secret Window before you dive into the DVD's special features, most of which quickly reveal the film's secrets. Writer-director David Koepp's commentary track is full of inside jokes and technical details but a bit dry; he might have benefited from another voice as a counter. He's also the centerpiece of the three lengthy featurettes (over an hour total), although the major cast members pitch in as well. And if it's true that "the only thing that matters is the ending," you get an alternate ending here among the four deleted scenes (two with optional Koepp commentary). It's not that different, tacking on a few striking but ultimately unnecessary seconds, but the computer-animated storyboards show that it's what Koepp originally had in mind. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Psychotic Johnny Depp!!!
Blood and Rain
Blood for the Masses

Secret Window
Starring
Johnny Depp

Director
David Koepp

Screenplay By
David Koepp

Reviewed By
B.L.Morgan

How many of you out there have had a relationship end because your partner fooled around on you behind your back? I don't expect anyone to answer that question because I know how embarrassing even being asked that can be.

Since today seems to be my day to make people uncomfortable, I'll try again.

How many of you writers out there have had someone accuse you of plagiarizing their work? Not me. I'll tell you that up front, because even rumors of that kind of thing can ruin a writer's career.

Morton Rainy, played by Johnny Depp, has both of those problems. Add to that the ingredient that Rainey is emotionally a wreck due to the intense pain from his divorce and you have a ticking time bomb. Depp is rapidly becoming one of my favorite actors to watch. First he was incredibly funny as the nutty buccaneer in Pirates of the Caribbean and now he flawlessly plays a clever, charming, emotionally dissolving man. "Secret Garden" could almost have been called the Johnny Depp show.

The guy accusing Depp of "Stealing" his story is John Shooter, played by John Turturro. If anything is weak about this movie it was Turturro's portrayal of Shooter. To make it plain, He just wasn't scary at all.

Johnny Depp carries this movie and does it magnificently. He is edgy, full of rage, lazy, distraught and funny. It's not very easy doing all those emotions in one motion picture, but he pulls it off.

There is one other star of "Secret Window." David Koepp directed this movie and did a good job of it. He was also the screenwriter and that's where he really shined. If you've read "Secret Window, Secret Garden," by Stephen King you'll recognize the story of "Secret Window." But Koepp weaved some surprises into his film using the original story elements that were very startling.

I give "Secret Window" a rating of 4 out of 5, only marked down because of Turturro's non-menacing John Shooter. He really could have done better.

If you like Stephen King's fiction, you should see this movie. I consider it one of the best of his adaptations. If you are a writer who likes King's work and have read "Secret Window, Secret Garden" it would be a crime if you don't see "Secret Window" with Johnny Depp as the slightly psychotic Morton Rainey.

Regurgitated King
If I hadn't seen that "Secret Window" was adapted from a Stephen King story I wouldn't have been surprised. This flick just smacks of deja vu. It's not bad King but it's not particularly great. The blocked writer in a remote setting with murder and mayhem ensuing is just so familiar. What elevates the film beyond the mundane are game performances by Johnny Depp as the harried writer and John Turturro delivering an inspired turn straight from "Night of the Hunter". Maria Bello looks hot but essentially wasted. Forgettable in the near extreme.

Hollywood does good with this King story.
Johnny Depp, you just have to admire the guy.
He can turn any role into something brilliant.
He certainly did in this movie.
From start to finish, interesting, memorable, fun from start to finish.
The ending really didn't surprise me all that much.
I never read the story, but I've read so much of King's work, I knew what the ending would be halfway through the movie.
Still, it's a clever and twisty movie with the usual knockout performance from Depp.
Recommended.