Secret Window

In the realm of Stephen King movie adaptions, 2004's SECRET WINDOW sits languidly in the bottom third.

In all fairness, it wasn't one of King's best books, but neither was "Delores Claiborne" and that was turned into a decent film.

The talent behind the film is solid.

Johnny Depp is Mort Rainey, a recently separated, depressed writer struggling to find any motivation to get off his couch.

With a loud knock on the door of Rainey's cabin in the woods, hillbilly & aspiring writer John Shooter (John Turturro at his creepy best) loudly announces that Rainey has plagiarized his one and only novel.

Arguments ensue and soon Shooter proves he's quite psychotic in his revenge for Rainey's creative theft.

But Rainey's argument is solid. His story was published the year before Shooter says he wrote his. So how can that be?

Maria Bello (A History of Violence) is Mort's ex-wife Amy and Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People) is her new fiance, Ted.

Charles S. Dutton (Se7en, Alien 3) is a private eye that Rainey hires, but the intel he comes up with is disturbing to say the least.

Just as I did when I read the book, I figured out the main plot point long before it's revealed, even though writer/Director David Koepp (Jurassic Park, SpiderMan, Mission:Impossible) takes it in different directions than the novel.

Depp's fine, the cast is good, but the central mystery is less than compelling.

The story line is remarkably similar to another King book of the same era, 'The Dark Half" and Timothy Hutton starred in that film adaption, which is probably a more interesting fact that is unveiled in either plot.

It turns out there just aren't many secrets OR surprises outside that SECRET WINDOW. I'll give it a C.