Melodrama… the movie! That’s what I thought was the star of this movie for long stretches of it, despite the presence of Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, and Jennifer Jason Leigh(‘s terrible hair/wig). Which doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie, but man they could have toned down the hysterical camera, music stings, and acting a few notches.

Woman in the Window stars Amy Adams as a child psychiatrist with agoraphobia… she hasn’t left her New York apartment in months. She’s hopped up on anti-anxiety meds and booze most days and seeing her own shrink on top of that. A new family moves in next door and she’s convinced the husband is beating his wife and kid… and then she sees the wife murdered. Except… no… the cops point out that his wife is very much alive. But she’s no longer Julianne Moore but is suddenly Jennifer Jason Leigh. What even is reality?

There’s some great acting in this movie… mainly from Amy Adams (who is thoroughly convincing as a wreck of a human being) but only because other luminaries like Oldman and Moore barely get any screen time (and don’t even talk to me about Anthony Mackie’s glorified cameo). Not sure why such a good cast got so little screen time.

As to story, it shares a ton of DNA with Rear Window… or Disturbia or Body Double… pick your “person spies on his/her neighbors and sees a murder” movie as your touchstone. It wears those inspirations on its sleeve though with some direct references to Hitchcock classics… if only it were as good as those movies.

And the final act’s big dumb reveal was a combination of a massive shrug and a “really? is this where the movie was going? Maybe this is all a hallucinations? No? Jeesh… way to not build the mystery and tension”. Yeah, it failed to nail the landing.

But, hey, the movie is still well acted and reasonably shot. Could have used more from the big name extras and could have used less filmic overkill (melodrama). But it mostly works. Mostly.

Score: 72