Secret Window

We really like Johnny Depp - we love Johnny Depp. Know that going into this review. If your opinion differs already, you will most definitely not agree with our opinion on this movie!

Secret Window was first a novella by Stephen King named Four Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden. I am also a huge Stephen King fan, so be warned.

John Turturro is a very good actor and was wonderful as usual in this one. We enjoyed him in O Brother Where Art Thou most memorably and also in the Monk tv show recently (playing Tony Shaloub's brother). He does the most with what he's got in this one. It's a weird role for him too - being the bad guy, the intimidator. It almost begs for a Mad TV satire - seems like it would be very easy to poke fun at his character if one wanted to.

Charles S. Dutton (Roc tv show, recently in Against the Ropes and Gothika) is as always a talented and skilled actor. He doesn't have as much to do as we had hoped, but he does it very well.

Johnny Depp is simply adorable. The writing is good - ending may be a little weak but the script up to that point is fun, interesting, and intriguing. It's not a scary movie - it's a suspenseful and interesting movie.

Maria Bello plays the ex wife, and Timothy Hutton the ex wife's new guy. Pretty much so what to both of them. They could have been swapped out with nearly anyone. The focus of this flick is Depp. First and foremost. There are plenty of one man scenes, and quite a bit of his dialogue is exchanged with his dog. We loved it.

We took our 15 year old daughter, Sarah to this one and she really enjoyed it. She said the theme was reminiscent of a Fear Street book she'd read years ago, and we agreed it also had the flavor of several other movies we'd seen in the past. But King published this story many many years before all of them, so it's a sure thing that none of them could possibly claim "You stole my story!".

The Cinemark Tinseltown in Pueblo was the theater for this one - and the popcorn was fresh and delish!

We all gave this one a 3.5 - FUN! plus great acting. It also spurred plenty of post-movie conversation, which is always a sure sign of a good movie.