I was so excited to see The Woman in the Window. I remember seeing the first trailer for this over a year ago and being very intrigued but of course the release got delayed because of COVID. Now having just seen it on Netflix, I can say that this film is for sure a mixed bag. I’m not going to lie, I was hoping for better from this, especially with this kind of an ensemble cast attached. The cast does their absolute best and everyone gives good performances but the script just needed some more work. With the script how it is, this film comes off as far too average and run of the mill.
The cast is chock full of A-listers who give really good performances, Amy Adams in particular. Adams shines as the lead in this, not for one minute did I doubt her as a struggling recluse. She further proves here why she’s one of Hollywood’s best. Julianne Moore also gives a worthy performance here as the mysterious woman from across the street who visits Amy Adams’s character. Moore is one of my favorites and I really love the way she played her role in this, she brings a certain mystery to it.
Fred Hechinger deserves a whole lot of praise here as well for his very understated performance as Moore and Oldman’s special needs son who befriends Adams. I was so impressed with his ability to play this role which has some interesting aspects to it. I really hope Hechinger gets more work off of this because he has a lot to offer.
Wyatt Russell does really well here too as Adams’s tenant who may or may not have some skeletons in his closet. He takes after his father when it comes to acting that’s for sure, I hope he gets more work from this too. Unfortunately, while Gary Oldman and Jennifer Jason Leigh are very talented actors, they are not put to good use in this. Oldman really only has one scene where he gets to showcase his talent and Leigh hardly has any screen time at all.
I was particularly disappointed about Leigh’s lack of screen time because she’s just so talented and always uplifts whatever she’s in. The Woman in the Window just completely forgets about her and that’s a damn shame! It’s even more of a shame when you consider how good Jennifer Jason Leigh is in thrillers, but I digress.
The actual plot is a very interesting one, it’s something you could do a lot of different things with. What The Woman in the Window does isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just that the way it goes about it could have been much more exciting. There’s a stretch in the middle where the film slows down a good bit as Adams is trying to figure out the mystery at hand and it’s never good for a thriller to slow down to a halt. A thriller of this kind needs to keep up the pace and keep the audience guessing and leaning in. To the films credit, things do get back up and going towards the end but by then a good bit of momentum has been lost.
During the trailer for The Woman in the Window, they said that Gone Girl came from the same folks that made this film which is surprising considering how far superior Gone Girl is to this. I would’ve gone to the theater to see this if the original release plans would have gone through but I’m glad they put it on Netflix because this isn’t quite worth the full price of admission. This fits right in on a streaming platform. If it would’ve received a theater release, I would’ve recommended it as a matinee. If only they would’ve given that script another look and spiced things up some more. At the end of the day, The Woman in the Window just feels very average.
I really wanted to give this a rave review but unfortunately what we have here is an average mystery thriller that wants to be something better than it is.
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