Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, and Anthony Mackie is in some ways the Perfect Pandemic Panacea. Even though this movie was delayed a full year because of COVID-19, it has finally arrived this month from 20th Century Fox on Netflix. And this film is tracking Top 10 for very good reasons. 

So let’s take a look inside THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW.

We have a mature, agoraphobic, separated and isolated child psychologist Anna Fox (Amy Adams). At first it feels like it might be a remake of REAR WINDOW, with Amy in the James Stewart role, as Gary Oldman and his curiously tight-lipped Russell family appear as the creepy neighbors. Ethan Russell (Fred Hechinger), the son, even breaks cover to extend a hand to dear old loner Dr. Fox, who is clearly unwell herself.

But then Julianne Moore shows up as the colorful truth-teller in the Russell family equation who then seems to vanish under suspicious circumstances, which feels like more REAR WINDOW until… THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW turns into PANIC ROOM from David Koepp for a moment, with Amy Adams protecting the mysteriously conflicted shy son, Ethan Russell. But then it takes another twist in this intricate, almost single-set, essay on loneliness.

A Look in the Window…

By the middle of the movie, Amy Adams hits her stride in this great thriller that turns out to homage the best tight-space psychological fear-fests of all time. Jennifer Jason Leigh, who appeared in SINGLE WHITE FEMALE about stolen identity, shows up as the real Mrs. Russell, Gary Oldman’s wife, whom Julianne Moore appeared to be earlier. Other inspired cast members include Wyatt Russell (who is actually a real Russell as son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, brother of Kate Hudson) and Brian Tyree Henry, who has a surprise in store for Anna Fox.

Joe Wright directs here to a crescendo.

Make sure to catch Amy Adams in THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW, in one of her best performances.

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