Secret Window (2004)
Directed by: David Koepp
Narration as a writer is all about perspective. In the way we formulate words to convey the story we want to portray. Take in to consideration Mort who has just witnessed his wife in infidelity. The loving husband façade is shattered by a moment fixated in time. It spins around and around suspending Mort in time although on the exterior he seems somewhat altogether. As we later find out, it's not necessarily true. This one moment in time suspends our protagonist and unhinges reality from fiction moving forward. The world around him starts to crumble though we are lead to believe otherwise. Can Mort escape the inner demons coming to surface and what is to become of Mort?
I loved this film since it came out in 2004. While viewing my Friday pick for this week I recalled this film and decided to give it a re-watch. I remember not truly being able to understand it but still loving it my first watch. It's now viewing this film, as a prospective writer that I begin to understand the small undertones that are left unnoticed. The cracking of the cabin walls, the dark undertones and foreshadowing hints bread crumbed to the the detailed observer, the implications of symbolism left for all to witness, and still the breath of mystery suspending in sequence. A interesting take on the mind and psyche of a man suspended in a frail moment in time. What we are lead to believe is one big red herring until the grand reveal at the end. Did you expect or suspect it? I suppose that's what this gem leads us to believe on our latter watches. It's a film completely left to speculate and understand on an individual basis and one I truly enjoy. The cinematography is brilliant, the writing is genius, and the characters are memorable respectively. This is one of my recommendations for the week leading to the next pick I reserved for Friday.
As I mentioned earlier on that their were bread crumbs left for the detailed seeking observer earlier on. The cabin as I mentioned and finally understood was a hint as a representation of Mort's mind. How is it that he often does his thinking there and his writing? He dreams and yes even schemes here. The cabin is a representation of his mind. When it starts to crack on the walls it's to imply that his mind is starting to crack open. The personality he hides within "Shooter" presses on his nerves. It's logic cruelly teasing his outer world. It presses on all his hidden demons. The ghosts of infidelity, the secret as a writer that only his Private Investigator ally and himself know, the spirits of doubt, and paranoia loom endlessly around his cabin/mind. The mirrors in his cabin are the windows to his sight his eyes. As you notice in time that his likeliness is parallel to the judging reason starting to sink into reality. Not to mention even the titles of the story in question.
"Sowing Season" and "Secret Window" both a like but with a changed ending. How is this so? Again, let's look at the character's Mort and Shooter. Mort's version a "Secret Window" has a different ending. This upset's Shooter. The ending in his story "Sowing Season" was poetry in his mind. The wife dies. Ironically we find out Shooter is just a play on the words Shoot Her which is what he secretly wants to do. He wants to unleash hell on earth on his wife for the humiliation and anger he harbors internally. Sow means to plant a seed. The very seed that is manifesting internally in his mind is revenge on his wife. It's deeply rooting and at this juncture there is no alternate route or alternate ending so to speak. Then we have his original title "Secret Window". The secret in his window or eyes is the inner psyche manifesting day by day as Shooter. In three days and in time this version of Mort manifested stemming from one moment that is suspended in time. It isn't until the ending is set right in the original intended meaning that the writer hides his secret in his garden. All seems rather at ease in Mort's world. The ending is finished and isn't it the hint of his own secrets in the last minutes of the film? The police officer he asked for assistance in the beginning returns once again to let him know he knows what he has done. He and the town know of his crimes and it's no secret. It's then our writer refers back to the symbolism of an ending and it's importance. In a way, his story comes full circle. Knowing he got away with his secrets once again.
10/10
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