It has been quite a while since I read The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn (May 2024, according to my Goodreads page) and I had actually forgotten about a movie coming out based on the book. Well, I recently saw that the movie is now available on Netflix. I added the movie to my list and sort of forgot about it again. I don’t know if you are like me and scroll through the movies and add several to the list and then realize that it has been an hour or so since I sat down to watch something and started scrolling. By this time, of course, I can’t decide what I’m in the mood for. I don’t know what I want to watch and am too tired to watch anything and soon fall asleep.
Anyway, I started scrolling through tonight and saw that the movie was in my list. I decided that it would be the perfect movie to watch to clear my mind of the movie I had just finished—Hobo with a Shotgun (a B grade film with Rutger Hauer that someone loaned me). I definitely needed a cleanser after that one.
Well, I was truly amazed. It had been so long since I had read (I think I had listened to it) the book that I didn’t really remember a whole lot. I couldn’t even remember exactly who the killer was. I kind of thought I remembered as the movie progressed. At least I had it narrowed down to a couple of people. This was good. Sometimes, of course, knowing ruins things.
The best part of the whole experience, however, was the atmosphere and the cinematography, set design, etc. The actors did a good job. I remembered thinking as I listened to the book that Julianne Moore would be perfect as the main character. She was who I kept picturing in my mind as I listened, and I assume this would have also been the case if I had read the book (rather than listening). Sometimes it is like that. I keep wondering if Finn had Moore in mind as she wrote. I’ll do that as I write also, where a character becomes so pronounced and so vivid in the mind’s eye that I can only see a certain actor playing the role if the story were a movie. In any case, Julianne Moore is actually in the movie, though she doesn’t play the main character. The lead role is played by Amy Adams, and she does a good job.
The atmosphere was, to me, the main character. The whole thing, the way the movie was shot, the tempo, etc. was very much in the vein of Hitchcock. The director’s name was Joe Wright. I don’t know anything about him nor have I seen anything else by him that I am aware of. I will say this—
If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today, I’m quite sure he would appreciate the way this one was done. He might only have a couple of quibbles, one would imagine. I can’t speak for him, obviously, but I do wonder about the scene or two that veered across the line and into “slasher movie” territory. If you watch the movie, you’ll know the main scene I refer to. I can’t tell you what it is without spoiling things for you.
Anyway, one could easily imagine ol’ Hitch being on the other side of the camera and directing the whole thing.
And yes, there were a couple of scenes that were obvious nods to Hitchcock. The main character watches old classics. She’s agoraphobic and can’t step out of the house, so of course she watches old movies. I believe there is a scene of Jimmy Stewart that I would swear is from Rear Window. And then there is an exact shot from the main character’s window of the building across the way that looks suspiciously identical to the view (at least a few frames) that could have been pulled from Rear Window. Who knows?
The movie Rear Window was taken from a short story by Cornell Woolrich. If you are interested in reading the story, it can be found in several places:
The Cornell Woolrich Omnibus, for instance (which also contains one of my all-time favorite stories—“Three O’Clock”).
And also, a book called Adaptations: From Short Story to Big Screen by Stephanie Harrison. There are “35 Great Stories that have Inspired Great Films” in this book, including such stories as “The Minority Report” by Philip K. Dick, “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, “The Killers” by Ernest Hemingway, along with other lesser-known stories. Interestingly enough, this book doesn’t include “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which I believe was a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Even more interesting is that “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier isn’t included.
Several of the stories that get made into movies are quite different entities by the time they make it to the big screen. “The Birds” is totally different, except for the main premise of birds attacking. The locale is changed for one thing. “Rear Window” varies to some degree. Often times it is simply a case of there not being enough content in a short story to stretch out to two hours. The moviemakers just take the main premise and run with it. One movie that did stick pretty much with the short story was “The Swimmer.” I accidentally happened on this movie and was surprised that it was made. It was a 1960s movie starring Burt Lancaster based on the Cheever story.
Quite a few movies have been made from Philip K. Dick stories in recent years. “Inception,” “The Edge of Tomorrow: Live, Die, Repeat,” “The Adjustment Bureau.” This last one didn’t have much at all to do with the story. The movie wasn’t bad though.
Anyway, getting back to the A. J. Finn book and it being made into a movie, if you’re a Hitchcock fan you won’t be disappointed. I highly recommend watching the film.
And I believe the book (Kindle version) is on sale at the moment.