This New Netflix Film Is A Disaster, Despite Years Of Anticipation
Movie audiences tend to swing one way or the other when it comes to optimism and enthusiasm. Films are either really amazing and the best thing to ever exist, or they're the absolute trash of the Earth. This is especially true when things are highly anticipated. A highly anticipated film is either a work of brilliance or an epic disappointment. This is why building up a lot of hype for a film, can be kind of a risk.
Perhaps one of the most anticipated films to come to Netflix this year, was Rear Window-esque horror/thriller The Woman in the Window. It follows a woman played by Amy Adams, who suffers from agoraphobia. Though she doesn't go outside, she keeps up with what's happening in her neighborhood by watching through her windows. One fateful night, she sees what she believes to be a crime occur across the street. The rest of the story revolves around her not only trying to solve the mystery, but also trying to figure out whether it actually happened.
This film has been hyped up and anticipated for years. The Woman in the Window is based on a very well-known book of the same name so it already had a fanbase because of that. After its filming and original cut, it was shown to test audiences and they were not happy with it. So, the filmmakers took that on as constructive criticism and changed their movie in hopes to appease and get a better reaction. Things were changed and recut, but then of course by the time the movie is set for release the world is in the midst of a global pandemic that practically halted the entire film industry. A full year later in May of 2021, after close to four years of anticipation, it was released on Netflix. Unfortunately, despite all of this effort and all of this hype, The Woman in the Window was kind of a fail.
The movie isn't bad for lack of trying hard. There are actually some interesting things done here when it comes to filmmaking techniques, camera work, and visual elements. A lot of that is commendable and visually pleasing to look at. However, the way the story is put together and the way it plays out is off-putting and doesn't feel natural. Some of those creative choices, which worked most of the time in the film's favor, also backfired and resulted in something kind of weird.
As a whole, the film is relatively boring and predictable. It starts off interesting enough, leaning into the Rear Window comparisons a bit, and the story is intriguing. However, it slows down and there's a lot of time spent in repetitive scenes that involve research or some sort of false answer to the mystery. Throughout the middle of the film, it's a bit of a slog. This is a situation where the primary location of the film's setting, doesn't work in its favor. It takes away from it.
The twists also feel painfully obvious. Nothing about this film feels very subtle or mysterious, despite it being meant as a mystery thriller. The story behind the crime, and even the details of it, seem to be relatively easy to figure out. Besides that though, the lack of subtlety is also evident in the smaller twists and turns of the movie. Secrets behind the characters of the story that maybe don't have an effect on the main conflict of the film, also feel really obvious. Their reveals feel like they're supposed to be really huge and effective, when in reality it's just anti-climactic. The audience is left with a feeling of, "that's it?"
All of this is on top of the elements that feel really weird and a bit stupid. The climax of the film which is meant to be this high-intensity scene and quite high stakes and scary has these weird things about it that actually make it funny. It has visual and sound effects that don't fit into the intended tone of the scene, nor the themes of the film, at all. It's not the biggest deal ever, but on top of all of the aforementioned problems, it just makes the film feel a bit pointless.
Though it had so much going for it, The Woman in the Window also seemed to have so much going against it. It was stuck in a bit of a production and release standstill, and there was some controversy about the author of the book which put people off of the film a little. Perhaps the story just wasn't one that worked for this kind of adaptation and release. Whatever it was that didn't work, this movie was a pretty big disappointment. It was talked about for years, has a stellar director and cast, a big Netflix release, and it still falls short. Perhaps not really bad enough for a "so bad it's good" quality, but also not good enough to recommend, so for most people The Woman in the Window will be an easy skip.
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