Through an Open Window

Eric Mendelson's 23 minute film Through an Open Window is a sharp look at an aging woman's fears. In a small suburban town, the woman--superbly played by Anne Meara--leaves her house, convinced that a bird is trapped inside it, to wander through the neighborhood seeking help and reassurance. What she finds instead is confirmation of her own trapped psyche that increasingly closes in on her until, at the end, she is left alone with it in a Beckettian finale. This is an intense and brilliantly imagined short film by the writer-director of Judy Berlin. Recommended (it's on the same DVD with Judy Berlin).

Too bad she's known primarily as Ben Stiller's mother and Jerry Stiller's wife. Anyone who caught this odd little film saw Anne Meara prove her extraordinary talent as an actress. She captures the complexities of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown as skillfully as any of our leading character actresses -- Sally Field, Sissy Spacek, Jane Alexander. Look again at those little comic sketches she and Jerry Stiller did on Ed Sillivan back in the 60's -- they were wonderful character pieces.