Tagline: Some windows should never be opened.
Secret Window movie storyline. Mort Rainey is a successful writer going through a rather unfriendly divorce from his wife of ten years, Amy. Alone and bitter in his cabin, he continues to work on his writing when a stranger named John Shooter shows up on his doorstep, claiming Rainey stole his story.
Mort says he can prove the story belongs to him and not Shooter, but while Mort digs around for the magazine which published the story in question years ago, things begin to happen around Shooter. Mort’s dog dies, people begin to die, and his divorce proceedings with Amy continue to get uglier. It seems that Shooter has Mort over a barrel, but perhaps Mort has his own ideas on how to resolve all the problems that plague him lately.
Based on Stephen King’s novella “Four Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden”, “Secret Window” is about a writer going through a painful divorce, who is stalked by a psychotic stranger who claims the writer stole his story. To force the writer to make amends, the stranger will go to any lengths, including murder.
Though he knows he should be at his computer writing another book, or at least walking his dog along the sparkling lake outside his dingy cabin, successful author Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is sleeping on his favorite sofa for up to 16 hours a day. He is in the midst of a painful divorce and everything about the breakup has turned messy and unpleasant. It has sapped his energy and siphoned away his creativity, leaving him with a monumental case of writer’s block that renders him incapable of even stringing a simple sentence together.
Then, when it seems as if things can’t possibly get worse, a psychotic stranger named John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up at his doorstep, accuses Rainey of plagiarizing his story and demands satisfaction. Despite Rainey’s efforts to placate him, Shooter becomes increasingly insistent and hostile, intimating a twisted sort of justice that could include cold-blooded murder. Forced into a mind-bending game of cat and mouse, Rainey discovers that he has more cunningness and gritty determination than he ever imagined. In the end, he realizes that elusive Shooter may know him better than he knows himself.
Secret Window is a 2004 American psychological horror-thriller film starring Johnny Depp and John Turturro. It was written and directed by David Koepp, based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King, featuring a musical score by Philip Glass and Geoff Zanelli. The story appeared in King’s collection Four Past Midnight. The film was released on March 12, 2004, by Columbia Pictures; it was a moderate box office success and received mixed reviews from critics.
Secret Window (2004)
Directed by: David Koepp
Starring: Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton, John Turturro, Vlasta Vrana, Len Cariou, Elizabeth Marleau, Kyle Allatt, Richard Jutras
Screenplay by: David Koepp
Production Design by: Howard Cummings
Cinematography by: Fred Murphy
Film Editing by: Jill Savitt
Costume Design by: Odette Gadoury
Set Decoration by: Francine Danis
Music by: Philip Glass, Geoff Zanelli
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence / terror, sexual content and language.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: March 12, 2004
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