The plot in a nutshell
Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is a writer.  He's also a man who's lost his wife to another man six months ago.  Living in his summer home while the divorce drags on, a stranger shows up - John Shooter (John Turturro) - claiming that Rainey stole one of his stories.  Rainey knows he's innocent, but the similarities in the stories, and the bizarre consequences, are too much to ignore.

The film is based on the novella "Secret Window, Secret Garden" by Stephen King.  It's another look inside the mind of the writer by one of the great writers of our time, and the film stays fairly close to the book.

King's writing isn't about the monster.  In reality, his books have covered all the same beasties over again that we've seen many times before - killer dogs, insane cars, crazy fans, bloodthirsty vampires, oversized rodents, etc. etc. etc.  No, it's not the monster that matters, but the people.  King writes some of the most colorful, complex characters of any author.  These are always people with which you identify, even the bad ones.  The story matters to you because you get to know, and care about, the people involved.

When someone decides to do a 'horror' movie, they don't care about the characters.  They hire B actors to play the main roles, and spend their money on making a cool looking monster, and having the cat jump out at just the right moment.  They think the horror part is all in the monsters, not in the people, and they fail miserably.  Films like Cujo, Christine, Thinner, Children of the Corn, Cat's Eye, and many, many others fail for just this reason.  Did you know he'sbeen adapted or been the screenwriter for 80 different movies and television mini-series?

But it seems like every time someone adapts one of his non-horror books, it's a huge hit.  Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, Running Man, Misery, and now Secret Window, all show what happens when they hire A list actors, who can bring to life the true nature of the characters, and get you to feel about them on film the same way you did in print.  Even the more horror based films that are hits, like Carrie, The Shining, Dead Zone, hire actors who can translate the characters, and the film focuses on them, instead of the scares.

And yes, I know there are exceptions on both sides, but I'm generalizing here.  Secret Window does what the best King movies do - Johnny Depp does an amazing job bringing to life the character of Mort Rainey.  And he doesn't look anything like a Mort.

He's not handling the loss of his wife well.  He's turned himself into a recluse, lost in his own world, still trying to write, but mostly just sleeping and being miserable.  From wearing his wife's old robe all day, now ratty and torn, to looking like he's never met a comb he liked, Depp falls into this guy's world perfectly.  It's another great performance by him, and further cements his under-appreciated nature.

The supporting cast does a fine job doing what they need to do, but the other important character here is John Turturro as the mysterious Shooter.  He goes down as one of the creepiest guys in recent film history, casual yet deadly, using his Mississippi drawl to take you completely off guard.

The writing is solid, mostly because it manages to keep the story tight, moving along, with some great dialog thrown in.  I never found myself bored, and yet it never felt rushed.  I will say that the 'surprise' was obvious about 10 minutes in, even if I hadn't already read the story.  But it's the ending that will haunt you, and rather than tack on the usual Hollywood ending, they went with a nice, creepy, bizarre Stephen King ending.

Rating - Rent It.
Cuddle up with your significant other and watch this together.  And think about how much different your life might be.  Maybe it's a good thing to not have too active of an imagination.

Spoiler Laden Thoughts
There are a couple things to bring up...

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Of course, you know he's nuts.  The twist here is that you like him, you relate to him, and even when it becomes obvious that he and Shooter are really one in the same, you don't want to believe it.  Will they eventually catch Depp?  Well, there's always the watch.  Then again, they have to find the truck first...

I did have a couple minor issues.  How did people miss the 'shooter' carved all over the house, particularly the P.I. Karsch?  He was in the place, and yet there was nothing odd...yet when his wife shows up at the end, there's clearly days worth of effort in putting the name everywhere.  The structure of the film implied he did all that after his wife had left her boyfriend's home, but before she reached the cabin, a tough sell.

And what happened with the housekeeper?  She was there once, but never again...it seemed the film had difficultiy  making the passing of time in the film make sense.  Shooter gave him three days at the start, but how much time really passed?

I liked the cut at the end of the film.  There is an alternate ending on the DVD, where they actually showed the bodies under the ground.  That was over the top, and I much prefer the cut from the dirt to his chomping on the ear of corn.  That's the way King likes to end stories, and let's hope his other films currently in production - Desperation, Riding the Bullet and Bag of Bones (especially Riding the Bullet) are allowed to explore evil in a similar way.