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75The story is more entertaining as it rolls along than it is when it gets to the finish line. But at least King uses his imagination right up to the end, and spares us the obligatory violent showdown that a lesser storyteller would have settled for.
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75Depp gives a smart, subtle performance, and Turturro is terrific as a foe who's both exactly what he seems and exactly the opposite. Koepp's makes his (literally) corny tricks seemfresh and surprising.
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75Bloody, bone-chilling fun.
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75Even if a certain glibness in the plotting deflates its impact somewhat at the finish, it remains an eerie, playful thriller and an all-around entertaining time at the movies.
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75A potent psychological thriller bolstered by strong performances and an offbeat sense of humor. What renders it an unsettling cut above many thrillers is the casting of Johnny Depp in the lead.
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75A jokey, junky potboiler.
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75It's a taught, entertaining motion picture that serves its purpose.
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70The resourceful actor (Depp) invigorates Secret Window with a playful personality and wryly humorous aplomb not front-and-center in the script, making the psycho-suspenser more compelling than it might otherwise have been.
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"The only thing that matters is the ending," says Rainey toward the end of the movie. He's talking about the writers' craft. Koepp, despite the best efforts of his cast, sends this comment soaring into the ether of irony.
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63Koepp, an often ingenious writer, should have followed King's example and covered his tracks better. If he had, Secret Window might have been as good as "Stir of Echoes," and not simply a mini "Misery" and a not-quite "Shining."
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63The film is ultimately a one-man show -- and when that man is the singularly crafty Depp, it's hard to look away.
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63A poet is not a pirate (except in his dreams), and, minus the gold in his teeth and kohl over his eyes and trinkets in his tresses, Depp is handicapped here -- for all his deft brushwork, he can only do so much with a flat character on a small canvas.
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63Secret Window leaves you unsatisfied and frustrated. Depp's performance both makes the film and undercuts it. He's a poet caught in a machine.
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60The movie telegraphs its intentions too early and relies too much on a single actor, Johnny Depp, to achieve its emotional force.
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58Doesn't keep any secrets but an open one: that Johnny Depp is on a roll, and actor's block is definitely not his problem.
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50In the end Secret Window asks too much, demands allegiance when only incredulity can be mustered.
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50It's a slight story to begin with, and the movie teeters on camp with its jokey filler material -- the typical King stuff including colorful locals, small puns and asides and a faint whiff of the supernatural.
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50Secret Window's premise is certainly new, even if King appears to be plagiarizing themes from himself.
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50The picture isn't nearly enough on any level: not scary, not suspenseful, not complex, not atmospheric.
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50Instead of taking us someplace we fear to go, Secret Window leads us to a place we've already been -- we know it so well, we could write the book on it ourselves.
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50Unsteadily pitched between horror and comedy, Secret Window turns out to be neither terribly scary nor especially funny.
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50Secret Window has an ending that lets one of our most reliably interesting actors pull out all the stops. But getting there from a good beginning followed by a slow, repetitive middle is a test of resourcefulness for him and a test of patience for us.
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50This Window ultimately feels like one most of us have climbed through before.
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42The film never kicks in as a character study or a star vehicle.
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40The movie's "shock" payoff still feels like a cheap trick.
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40Secret Window is almost worth seeing for his characteristically assured performance alone, but Koepp sabotages Depp and his surroundings with an ending so atrocious, it callously betrays everything that came before it.
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40This is fun for a while, but the ending is so ridiculous, and obvious, as to sully all the small joys that come before it.
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30The film itself is an effective enough metaphor for out-of-control bullshit that frankly, Koepp aside, was part and parcel of King’s novella from page 1.
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30The ultimate test of one's tolerance for King's self-aggrandizing postulations about writer's block, obsessive fans and the potentially frightening manifestations of the writer's id...It's just plain lousy.
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30"The only thing that matters is the ending," Mort declares in the closing seconds, just as the director is serving up a colossal (and literally corny) stinker. But for Depp, it's yet another daunting mission accomplished with wit and ingenuity.
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30This movie is a suspense thriller whose only suspense comes from an audience wondering if the picture will hit its promised 97-minute running time.
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30You can boost mediocrity a little, but you cannot raise it from the dead.
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30The tricky plot has an interesting payoff, but it's a slow and bumpy ride getting there, and Koepp fares better with special effects than with generating either suspense or interest in the characters.
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20The worst sin of omission in Secret Window is the removal of the fact that Rainey had actually plagiarized in the past. In the story, this is critical because it is the source of Rainey’s guilt -– and arguably the reason for his success.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 23 out of 40
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Mixed: 5 out of 40
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Negative: 12 out of 40
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JayH.6
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KevinB.9