SECRET WINDOW
Year: 2004
USA: Columbia Pictures
UK: Columbia Tristar Films (UK)
Cast: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles Dutton, Kyle Allatt, Len Cariou, Gillian Ferrabee, Richard Jutras
Director: David Koepp
Country: USA
UK: 96 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for violence/terror, sexual content and language
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate violence & horror, and one use of strong language
USA Release Date: 12 March 2004
UK Release Date: 30 April 2004
Synopsis
Though he knows he should be at his computer writing another book, or at least walking his dog along the sparkling lake outside his dingy cabin, successful author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is sleeping on his favourite sofa for up to 16 hours a day. He is in the midst of a painful divorce and everything about the break-up has turned messy and unpleasant. It has sapped his energy and siphoned away his creativity, leaving him with a monumental case of writer's block that renders him incapable of even stringing a simple sentence together.
Then, when it seems as if things can't possibly get worse, a psychotic stranger named John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up at his doorstep, accuses Rainey of plagiarizing his story and demands satisfaction. Despite Rainey's efforts to placate him, Shooter becomes increasingly insistent and hostile, intimating a twisted sort of justice that could include cold-blooded murder.
Forced into a mind-bending game of cat and mouse, Rainey discovers that he has more cunningness and gritty determination than he ever imagined. In the end, he realizes that elusive Shooter may know him better than he knows himself.