The Woman in the Window Review: Inspired Set Design and Uninspired Storytelling

This review contains some spoilers for the film, The Woman in the Window.

I think; therefore, I am. I breathe; therefore, I love Amy Adams.

Adams is one of the finest actresses working today and the key word there is working. She’s had a full dance card for years, but with that many projects, there are sure to be some misfires. The Woman in the Window, plagued by delays, reshoots, and other controversy, isn’t a dud, per se, but it’s not good either. 

A few things are working against The Woman in the Window from the very start.

First off, there’s the general crux of the story. Agoraphobic Anna (Adams) is your quintessential unreliable narrator, overly reliant on pills and wine. There are not many different ways for this kind of story to unfurl.

Either she did, in fact, witness a murder as she asserts, or she did not. Either she is ultimately proven right and believed, or she is not.

When the plot boils down to two possible conclusions, how a story gets from A to B becomes even more important, and that may be The Woman in the Window‘s greatest Achilles heel.

The film makes a big show of Anna’s love for old films, sometimes almost too much (liking old movies is not a personality, no matter how much us critics may wish otherwise).

Sampling clips from other films — particularly Rear Window, with whom The Woman in the Window is clearly trying to telegraph connection — mostly serve to remind us of other thriller and suspense films that have tread similar boards and likely did so more originally and creatively. Instead of drawing a parallel, this narrative device acts as more of a comparison, and to the film’s detriment.

The twists and turns of the plot grow increasingly more convoluted to the point where scenes become opportunities for actors to spout paragraphs of exposition rather than react to each other. (There’s one scene with Wyatt Russell in the last quarter of the film that’s particularly merciless in this regard).

The final act reveal of Ethan’s (Fred Hechinger) sinister side is also completely unearned and while Hechinger’s performance is solid, especially considering what he was given, there’s a certain hollowness to his confession. His bond with Anna never quite feels substantial, so the betrayal of that moment doesn’t hit like it should.

Altogether, the cast of The Woman in the Window is uniformly excellent, but that hollowness follows all of them around to some extent. Adams makes for a solid everywoman, and even in her messiness, she is hard to dislike, but we never really get to know her on a deeper level.

Julianne Moore, as she often tends to be, is the most interesting part of the proceedings, though her appearance feels far too short. Her scene with Adams accounts for the most satisfying part of the film’s runtime and she gets the best line of the film, insulting Anna’s home within minutes of stepping foot inside.

But still, for our film’s victim, it’s hard to stay too invested because we barely know her.

Gary Oldman and Jennifer Jason Leigh round out the cast but have next to nothing to do so it’s hard to understand why actors of their caliber would sign on for roles that are so scarcely sketched (though I’ll admit the sly connection between Leigh’s film, Single White Female, and her role here, is fun to make, if only for a moment).

Wyatt Russell is appropriately opaque and caustic but feels more like a pawn rather than a person (a fault of writing not performance).

Where the film fails dramatically, it admittedly succeeds technically.

Danny Elfman’s score works overtime to add to the bumps and thrills (and sometimes inventing some where none exist); the production design of Anna’s Harlem row house is utterly divine (truly, the undeniable star of the film) and director Joe Wright plays with angles, camera shots, and lighting to set a mood. 

It’s just a shame that the wrapping for everything is better than what’s inside.

Overall, The Woman in the Window isn’t a terrible way to spend two hours, but it’s most definitely not appointment-viewing. It probably best goes down when you’re a few sheets to the wind, wrapping up for the day, and too out of it to pay close attention to details and nuance.

Stray observations:

• I am genuinely surprised that the cat makes it to the end of the film alive.
• This is a significant waste of Anthony Mackie, who spends what little time he’s present in the film providing voiceover. Additionally, the overall twist for his character doesn’t land either.  For Anna to welcome as many people into her home as she does but never her husband or child is a clear tip-off that something is amiss. (Never mind the lack of FaceTime).
• I love theatre, but there is an aspect of this film that feels more like a play rather than a movie, and I don’t mean that it in a complimentary way.

What did you think of The Woman in the Window? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Woman in the Window is available to stream on Netflix. 

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