Cinema is very indifferent to creative personalities, the audience likes to watch the passions boiling in the lives of athletes, scientists, artists. Writers of all stripes deserve special attention, since each director subconsciously feels that the success of a future project lies precisely in the writer's literary talent. In 2004, David Kepp decided on a desperate experiment - an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “The Secret Window, The Secret Garden”, which was included in the collection “Four After Midnight”.
In the style of Stephen King
There are a lot of movie masterpieces, the plot of which is similar to the psychological thriller of David Kepp, based on the work of a classic of the horror genre: “Fight Club”, “Psycho”, “American Psycho”, “Split”, “Island of the Damned”, etc. It should be emphasized that almost every work of the writer has a mysterious space, whether it be a hotel room, a tunnel or a secret window. And again, the key character is the focus - the writer, as in Misery and Radiance. And again, the story tells of nightmares and insanity. The premiere of Secret Window tape took place on October 12, 2004. The picture paid off at the box office - with an initial budget of $ 40,000,000, box office receipts amounted to $ 92,913,171.
The filming process took place in several Canadian cities in the province of Quebec, as well as in New York. Reviews "Secret Window" received conflicting ratings of the film was 6.60.
Author's project
In the modern film industry, David Kepp is better known as a successful screenwriter, his services are highly rated in the film industry market. For example, for the script for the “Room of Fear," he received $ 4 million. Sometimes the playwright decides to realize himself in directing, but as a director he is not very famous, which can not be said about his screenwriting. Kepp is the author of the scripts for Spider-Man, Echoes of Echo, The Room of Fear, Snake Eyes, as well as the films Carlitto's Way, Mission Impossible, Death to Her Face, and Jurassic Park period. " Therefore, it is not necessary to explain to the filmmaker how to frighten the audience with his text, but high-quality directing is a completely different matter. He failed to achieve outstanding successes in this field until the film “Secret Window” (2004) also did not correct the situation. As director Kepp does not compare with Brian Singer, his authorial style of shooting does not allow to expect something innovative, while there is something to enjoy while watching.
Free adaptation
Critics in their reviews of The Secret Window looked at many references to other works of S. King and reproached Kepp in the altered finale, which is ideal from a cinematic point of view, but does not correspond to the literary source. In the story of King, the main character dies, but his wife and her lover remain alive. And Mort Rainey didn't have a dog, but a cat.
However, one author’s find of the director of the “Secret Window” was approved by film experts. During the filming of the first episode in which the character of Johnny Depp burst into a hotel room where his wife and her lover retired, actors Maria Bello and Timothy Hatton look genuinely scared. To achieve such exponential naturalism, David Kepp applied the effect of surprise, he forced the actors to lie in bed for 15 minutes. Those tired of waiting, relaxed. So when Depp broke into the room, they were really scared.
Caution Spoiler
Even a brief description of the plot of the "Secret Window" is almost impossible to provide without the slightest bit of spoiler.
In the film adaptation of the story of the king of horrors, Depp plays Mort Rhine, a writer who is experiencing the hellish torment of a creative crisis. The hero begins to pursue a mysterious stranger Cockney Shooter, accusing him of plagiarism. The man not only threatens the writer with revelation, he literally kills everyone who is somehow involved in the theft of his story, slowly getting to the Rhine. According to King, the shocking finale turns the story inside out, turning the victim into an executioner.
Unreliable narrator
Among the modest list of the advantages of the Secret Window painting, expert reviews highlight the narrative style and the presence of an off-screen narrator. Usually, a voice that serves as a guide for the audience is accepted. He thoroughly describes the characters, gives important clues to understanding what is happening. But with Kepp, the storyteller’s words should be divided in two, as he plays the key character. Mort Rainey tells how his marriage is falling apart, how a mysterious southerner comes. A man whose face is hidden behind the floors of a black hat threatens with terrible punishment for old plagiarism. Mort wants to prove that his assumption is erroneous, since the story was published two years earlier than Shooter supposedly came up with it. He even orders a copy of the number of the printed publication, but while the parcel reaches him, the distraught opponent kills the writer’s dog, then takes on the writer's relatives. At a certain point, Mort begins to suspect (spoiler!) That there is no Southerner, just his consciousness gives rise to another personality, so that he can deal with his betrayed wife with "wrong" hands.
Together with Mort, the narrator, the viewer is also seeing. Most people cannot believe that Johnny Depp’s hero is a murderer, and he cherishes the hope that maybe it’s not him. Therefore, nothing so strengthens the position of the narrator as the correct choice of an actor for the appropriate role. The film “Secret Window” (2004) serves as evidence of this.
Imaginary friend
Many of us in childhood had to remain alone and talk out of boredom, play with a fictional friend, or at worst with ourselves. There is nothing supernatural in this phenomenon, a typical process of socialization. But sometimes imaginary interlocutors continue to pursue individuals in adulthood, and by no means do they always influence a person’s state in a pacifying way; on the contrary, they often incite to commit feats. In reality, such psychological disorders become the cause of hospitalization, but in the movie from these interlocutors, vivid and memorable characters are obtained. For example, Cockney Shooter (shooter means "shooter"), which is nothing more than the fruit of Mort's sick imagination. But this did not stop the hero from winning the audience’s love.
Quietly with myself I have a conversation ...
In the list of screen versions of Stephen King’s opuses, The Secret Window occupies a middle position, as you cannot call a thriller a masterpiece, but David Kepp’s creation cannot be denied a certain charm. The film was especially lucky with the acting ensemble. Johnny Depp has not yet completely plunged into the pirate adventures of captain Jack Sparrow, and John Turturro embodied on the screen one of the most striking and frightening images in his career - the mysterious Southerner Cockney Shooter, who accused the writer of plagiarism. Turturro decided to take part in the creation of the picture, thanks to the insistent requests of his son, who is an avid fan of King. The character could embody Wing Reims, but due to a mismatch in the filming schedule, an agreement with the performer could not be reached. What did not affect the quality of the tape. Many reviewers in reviews of The Secret Window noticed that the dialogues of Shooter and Rainey were beaten flawlessly, so the final twist turned out to be unusually impressive, because it is always nice to have a conversation with an intelligent person - with yourself.
Cult personality
The actors (and the roles that they play) that were shot in the Secret Window movie will surely be remembered by the viewer. Many of them decided to watch the thriller because of the participation in it of the charismatic Johnny Depp. A cult figure of the millionth army of fans, he was born into a family of a waitress and an engineer, dropped out of school to become a rock musician. Fortunately, he subsequently decided to try his luck in Hollywood. Now only the most devoted fans remember his first role in the movie. It was a film from the series “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” shot by Wes Craven. Depp's character did not stand out in anything special, and therefore, was not remembered. The popularity came to the performer in 1990, when two paintings with his participation immediately appeared on the big screen - “Edward Scissorhands” and “Crybaby”. Since then, the actor’s career has developed rapidly, turning the debutant into a movie star of the first magnitude.
Johnny Depp is endowed with unparalleled acting talent, he is not afraid to appear before the viewer defenseless and cynical, ironic and serious, intelligent and silly, rational and crazy, right and vicious, cold and sexy. Sometimes its refined taste breaks into kitsch. He may be funny and miserable for the sake of the role. The actor is not afraid to take risks. In the thriller Secret Window, Johnny Depp fully revealed the character of his hero.
The cast. John Turturro
With all the praises of Johnny Depp, it should be noted that John Turturro in the "Secret Window" looks no worse. An American film actor with Italian roots is endowed with no less dramatic gift, he tried to realize his talents as a director and screenwriter. As an actor, John plays in most impulsive and restless characters, so he is one of the favorite performers of a huge army of connoisseurs of arthouse cinema. For a long time, Turturro actively collaborated with the director Spike Lee, he took part in many films of the director, for example, “Girl number 6”, “Do it right!”, “Sam’s bloody summer”.
From the beginning of the 90s, he played in the Cohen brothers' projects, the films regularly appeared with his participation: “Big Lebowski”, “Miller's Crossroads”, “Oh, where are you, brother?” and Miller's Crossroads. In the 2000s, the actor joined the ensemble of the epic Transformers. In his asset as a director at the moment there are only four films.
Maria Bello and others
Twice the Golden Globe nominee, American actress Maria Bella in the Secret Window played the cheating wife Amy Rainey. Her career began with the participation in the series “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” which was canceled some time after the broadcast due to low ratings. But the actress was immediately offered to embody the image of Anna Del Amiko, a pediatrician in the famous Ambulance. Among the last notable works of the performer is the role in the movie “House of Fear”.
The owner of the Oscars and Golden Globes, Timothy Hatton in the creation of Kepp reincarnated as Ted Milner, the new lover Amy Rainey. The filmography of the actor contains a series of famous paintings: “Agents Falcon and Snowman”, “Daniel”, “Hang up”, etc. The artist is often shot on TV, among his successful work roles in the series “Secrets of Niro Wolfe”, “Five days before Midnight, Impact, and American Crime.
Actor Charles Dutton, reincarnated as Ken Detective's private investigator, before becoming a director, played in more than a hundred paintings and TV shows.
Solid tips
Almost all critics in the reviews on the Secret Window focus on the fact that the director has fed the story of the thriller to the limit with all kinds of prompts. Acquaintance with the hero occurs through his reflection in the mirror, which hints at the duality of his nature. The mirror will appear in the final, conditionally looping the paranoid story. Another pattern - in the final, the walls of the house are filled with cracks, speaking the personification of the writer’s anxiety, his progressing madness. The director emphasizes schizophrenia, showing the viewer two personalities at once from the beginning of the tape. Accompanied by the witching music of Philip Glass and Jeff Zanelli, David Kepp, in his work, argues that evil is frighteningly fatal, especially when its source is a man himself who succumbs to his passions and desires.