We’ve been anxiously anticipating this one since it was initially announced. Based on the best-selling novel by A. J. Finn, The Woman in the Window boasts an incredible cast led by Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Julianne Moore. It’s directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Tracy Letts. Still, the film was shuffled to various release dates and studios before finally landing at Netflix.
It will finally be seen on May 14.
Here are the official trailer and synopsis.
Synopsis:
Anna Fox (Amy Adams) is an agoraphobic child psychologist who finds herself keeping tabs on the picture perfect family across the street through the windows of her New York City brownstone. Her life is turned upside down when she inadvertently witnesses a brutal crime. Based on the gripping, best-selling novel and adapted by Tracy Letts, shocking secrets are revealed and nothing and no one are what they seem in this suspenseful psychological thriller starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Fred Hechinger, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Julianne Moore.
Then again test audiences should not be given that kind of power over a creative process they are not involved in while actual creatives are.
Otherwise we would never get a film like Arrival. Nor a single Nolan film. I mean if this test audience couldn’t handle a pretty simple murder mystery (I read the book) and found it too complex and confusing what would they have said about something like Inception ?
I sincerely hope it will be clarified which version Netflix will release in May because there are two.
The first one is Joe Wright’s cut that he and Fox 2000 were happy with and were ready to release in October 2019.
The second one is the disneyscissorhand-ed cut that was requested post-Fox/Disney merger because Disney didn’t like how “complex” the plot was.
Irony is that latter was requested due to allegedly underwhelming test screening scores yet in the end both cuts got similar test scores so if that’s the case, I would rather see the potential misfire that a creative delivered than the one a board of non-creative Disney execs did.
With the right material Joe Wright is an excellent director, I think his literary trilogy (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina) has been ageing beautifully.
Tracy Letts is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning writer so I can’t see his take on the novel be anything less than “eh good but not great” even if it IS his first time adapting someone else’s work. He had talked about his frustration with Disney before and how their version has little to do with what he and Wright had been going for so I hope Netflix will opt for their version and not Disney’s.
Also the central quartet (Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore) has 15 Oscar nominations between them and they are always great even when the film around them isn’t.
Long story short I would be absolutely stunned if this film was actually bad. I could see it turn out to be “not great” (especially if we get the disneyscissorhanded “directed by a committee” cut) but the worst case scenario to me feels like a classy but mediocre Hitchcock rip-off. As in : good. Probably not great. But definitely not bad.
You’ve said it all. I’d have the supposedly “too confusing” version of a fascinating talent like Joe Wright any day than some bullshit studio cut with extra reshot scenes that had essentially the same response as the at least original, final version of the creator of the film.
I can’t wait to see it anyway and I still hope it won’t disappoint. Amy looks phenomenal as always and clearly in something at least not as artistically non-existent and exploitative as the “it should best be forgotten forever”, godawful Hillbilly Elegy.
I HEART me Amy Adams, but it’s never a good sign when test audiences say your movie is “too confusing”.
Then again test audiences should not be given that kind of power over a creative process they are not involved in while actual creatives are.
Otherwise we would never get a film like Arrival. Nor a single Nolan film. I mean if this test audience couldn’t handle a pretty simple murder mystery (I read the book) and found it too complex and confusing what would they have said about something like Inception ?
And a test audience of teens expecting to see a light comedy destroyed one of the greatest masterpieces of cinema history, The Maginificent Ambersons
I sincerely hope it will be clarified which version Netflix will release in May because there are two.
The first one is Joe Wright’s cut that he and Fox 2000 were happy with and were ready to release in October 2019.
The second one is the disneyscissorhand-ed cut that was requested post-Fox/Disney merger because Disney didn’t like how “complex” the plot was.
Irony is that latter was requested due to allegedly underwhelming test screening scores yet in the end both cuts got similar test scores so if that’s the case, I would rather see the potential misfire that a creative delivered than the one a board of non-creative Disney execs did.
So true. I hope it’s Joe Wright’s original vision. I trust him far more than execs for sure.
And really, how bad can it be??? The novel was fairly straightforward.
With the right material Joe Wright is an excellent director, I think his literary trilogy (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina) has been ageing beautifully.
Tracy Letts is a Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning writer so I can’t see his take on the novel be anything less than “eh good but not great” even if it IS his first time adapting someone else’s work. He had talked about his frustration with Disney before and how their version has little to do with what he and Wright had been going for so I hope Netflix will opt for their version and not Disney’s.
Also the central quartet (Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore) has 15 Oscar nominations between them and they are always great even when the film around them isn’t.
Long story short I would be absolutely stunned if this film was actually bad. I could see it turn out to be “not great” (especially if we get the disneyscissorhanded “directed by a committee” cut) but the worst case scenario to me feels like a classy but mediocre Hitchcock rip-off. As in : good. Probably not great. But definitely not bad.
Pre-release whining be damned.
THIS.
You’ve said it all. I’d have the supposedly “too confusing” version of a fascinating talent like Joe Wright any day than some bullshit studio cut with extra reshot scenes that had essentially the same response as the at least original, final version of the creator of the film.
I can’t wait to see it anyway and I still hope it won’t disappoint. Amy looks phenomenal as always and clearly in something at least not as artistically non-existent and exploitative as the “it should best be forgotten forever”, godawful Hillbilly Elegy.