The Woman in the Window
NETFLIXAmy Adams needs a new agent. Ever since her Best Actress snub for Arrival at the 89th Academy Awards, Adams’ film roles have been interesting to put it politely. It seems like she is chasing another nomination to finally get the Oscar win but the movies always fall flat and, tragically, The Woman in the Window is no exception.
Adams’ plays Anna Fox, a children’s psychologist, agoraphobe, and alcoholic, who spends every second of her day shut in her New York townhome. When her therapist is not visiting her home for sessions, she watches films, plays with her cat Punch, pops pills, speaks to her ex-husband (Anthony Mackie) on the phone and spies on her neighbours. A new family moves in across the street and Anna quickly becomes friendly with their sweet son Ethan (Fred Hechinger), and his charming mother Jane (Julianne Moore). However, the neighbourly theatrics quickly come crashing down when Anna witnesses Jane being stabbed to death by her husband (Gary Oldman).
Unable to leave her home, Anna frantically calls the police only to discover that Jane Russell is fine, though she’s now played by an entirely different actress, Jennifer Jason Leigh. For the remainder of the film the other characters paint Anna out to be an unreliable witness due to her trauma, phobias, and addictions, and she is forced to become an armchair detective and prove what she saw.
Director Joe Wright brings his impeccable sense of style to The Woman in the Window. Anna’s townhome is always dim, heightening her feeling that there is something creeping in the shadows. He also uses lighting and angles to drive home Anna’s delusions, she falls asleep muttering along to old movies, she takes her medication with alcohol and she often lets out a confused chuckle when she’s talking to the Russell’s or her tenant David (Wyatt Russell). The film is also littered with references to film noir and Hitchcock, Wright even gives us a glimpse of Anna watching Rear Window, the clearest inspiration for The Woman in the Window. But despite Wright’s stylised approach, the film simply gets lost in its writing – none of the reveals work after its crazy first act and by the time the film ends you simply turn it off instead of looking back at all the points leading up to the climax.
It’s difficult to unpack why the film falls flat, because The Woman in the Window should work on paper. It has a star-studded cast to fill out the world outside Anna’s home, the film noir visuals breathe life into the film’s whodunnit narrative and, though the buildup was spoiled by the Netflix trailer, the insistence of Jennifer Jason Leigh being the real Jane Russell instead of Julianne Moore hits and drives Adams’ character into mania as she tries to solve the case. But as more and more gets revealed The Woman in the Window is left feeling rather anticlimatic, it just can not live up to its first act and is left with no way to effectively move forward.