Secret Window

Released 2004
Stars Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton
Directed by David Koepp

Secret Window introduces us to Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp), an unkempt author who is holed up in an isolated cabin somewhere in the woods, trying to use writing as a form of self-therapy to forget the infidelity of his soon-to-be ex-wife, Amy (Maria Bello). Mort's life is a mess, but it's soon to become even messier. One afternoon, an ominous man calling himself John Shooter (John Turturro) arrives as Mort's door and claims that Mort plagiarized one of his stories. Mort is incredulous, and immediately dismisses the man. But Shooter will not be put off so easily, and he begins to stalk Mort, threatening dire consequences if the writer does not come to terms with him, then acting on his threats when Mort refuses to capitulate.

Summary by James Berardinelli

I'm not a big fan of thrillers, because I'm always wondering why the victim doesn't do the obvious things. Mort makes half-hearted attempts to do so, but he doesn't seem to want to really deal with the problem. Of course, we find out why at the end. I must say I really didn't like the twist. I must not have been paying much attention, because I never saw it coming. I guess I wasn't that interested, despite John Turturro's outstandingly creepy performance. Besides his performance, I liked the ending because it's so rare for a thriller to have the guts to let the bad guy get away with it. --Bill Alward, August 22, 2004