The woman in the window

Year of release : 2021

Run time : 1h42m

Genre : Psychological Thriller / Mystery

Cast : Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore, Anthony Mackie

The movie is based on the 2018 novel of the same name, written by A.J. Finn.

Anna lives alone in a large and beautiful Manhattan house. Suffering from agoraphobia, she is afraid to go outside, so she spends her days spying on the neighbors, talking to her family, her husband and daughter, whom she supposedly separated from (this is what she tells people),receiving visits every Monday from her psychiatrist, and watching her favorite old movies.

The movie opens on a Monday, with her psychiatrist's visit, who gives her new meds with serious side effects.

Anna already takes a lot of pills with wine. She starts being interested in the new neighbors, the Russells. Their son, Ethan, comes to visit her one day, and they befriend, to the point she gives him some movies from her old movie collection, and tells him she is a child psychologist.

She has a tenant, David, who lives in her basement, an idea her psychologist had, so she won't be alone.

 

On Tuesday evening, being Halloween, the neighborhood kids are egging her house for not answering the door, offering them treats. Trying to make them go away, and open the front door, she faints and wakes up on the couch as a woman is asking her if she's Ok.

She thinks she is Jane Russell, and the woman doesn't contradict her. They end up talking, and the woman talks about her son, Ethan.

Wednesday evening, as she's taking a bath, she hears screams from across the street, and calls Ethan who seems to be crying. She sees "Jane Russell" walking away upset.

Anna takes out her photo camera, and starts taking pictures of the Russells who are fighting.

Ethan comes to see her right after, and tells her his father has temper problems caused by stress.

Thursday evening after she wakes up from falling asleep on the couch, she sees the woman fighting with someone that she believes to be her husband, and then sees her being stabbed !

She calls the police but they don't believe her, especially since the Russells come to her place, telling her Jane Russell is alive and well!

The more she says about this family, the more the police think her crazy! Not to mention, when she called the police they asked her if she stabb3d her neighbor!

After this point, everybody turns against her and think her crazy : the Russells, Ethan, David, the police who don't do their job! By the way, the 2 detectives, whatever they were ,especially the woman, were very annoying!

They think she made the Jane Russell she thinks of, up, to the point she also starts believing she was hallucinating! Until she finds the drawing of her Jane made, and signed Jane Russell.

Anna starts doing her own research, trying to figure out what is happening.

I personally enjoyed the movie. I loved how it was filmed, the angles, the visual effects, making us feel like we are in our lead's head,like when we read a book.

The movie takes place in a week.

The movie reminded me a lot of the 1954 movie,Rear Window, as the lead in that movie was home bound too, in his case, due to an accident, which left him unable to move.

One thing I didn't get was, why didn't these people, all of them, because at first Anna was spying on more neighbors until she focused on the Russells, have curtains?!

Second, at one point, the real Jane Russell calls her telling her to stop spying on them, implying that she can see her from her place looking at them, although Anna was sitting in the dark, while Jane was in her own house, where I believe the lights were on. The building in front of mine is closer to me than in this movie, and I can't see inside people's houses especially if it's dark inside their home!

I liked the acting, Amy Adams was amazing! Julianne Moore and Anthony Mackie have small roles (they only appear in one scene), almost like a cameo.

The soundtrack by Danny Elfman, was good, matched the video to perfection.

The movie received mixed reviews, the critics complaining about the plot, but praising the performances.

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9h60ws

Rating : Worth a watch !