A poor screenplay usually yields disappointment, and a low rating attached to my review - and this adapted screenplay is undeniably flawed.
However, the excellent performances of the ensemble of top-line actors in 'The Woman In The Window' makes viewing this long-anticipated movie worth the invested time, and gets a rare hall-pass from me.
Bruno Delbonnel's cinematography helps immensely, delivering unique scene structure and cinematic camera techniques that pay homage at large to Alfred Hitchcock, and the story itself paralleling one of his most critically acclaimed films 'Rear Window'.
Hitchcock was a filmmaker's filmmaker, and Delbonnel pays tribute by unabashedly utilizing a large number of classic Hitchcockian (and Bergman) camera techniques to set the film's overall suspense tone, build tension and anticipation, establish metaphors, and bring the viewer into the thinking and emotions of the protagonist (eg. Spiraling stairwell scenes, bokeh close-ups, half-face shadowing, elevated camera angles, surreal imagery, dead-silent eye-contact moments, etc.), that add viewing-value.
But this film was disappointing in its story telling, especially in its ending where I'm guessing scenes were left on the editing floor. Perhaps the reason the film took so long to release were triage-attempts to re-edit the story back into the film...this almost never works.
Regardless, for me the experience of viewing such deft retro artistic filmmaking, and witnessing the superb acting performances by this highly capable cast (led by Amy Adams👏), was enough to garner a passing grade from me, and a recommendation to view.
