None of the acting talent of Amy Adams can save “The Woman in the Window” from itself.
The film’s core concept is to lead its audience down the drunk pill popping descent of its main character, Anna, and in her delusion, imagining the gruesome murder of a woman she briefly meets. While tipping an homage to Hitchcock and other suspense/thriller films, “The Woman in the Window” is deeply anemic and unsatisfyingly written.
To spoil the film, the twist is everything Anna was seeing and hearing, including the aforementioned murder, were all real. But the audience is spoon fed an unbroken trail of crumbs throughout, explicitly and unequivocally pointing to Anna hallucinating all events. There are no real clues or ambiguity in which anyone looking on with posterity could conclude such a twist was well laid. Without the film creating its own narrative tension for direction, all of this feels like a bizarre whiplash meant to subvert audience expectations without the meat to make that subversion feel well earned. The resolution in which everything comes together is explained suddenly with all the subtlety of a cudgel.
While its disappointing to disparage any earnest project, there isn’t much good to be said about “The Woman in the Window” that would lend itself to recommendation. It feels sloppy and possesses deeply uncompelling story elements across the board. Worst of all, it isn’t engaging enough to lessen the impact of those faults.
60% D-
As AJ Thinks 