American screenwriter and director Curtis Hanson has built his career on the series of psychological thrillers in 1980s and 1990s. Like many modern authors of the genre, he owed great deal of inspiration to Alfred Hitchcock and his classic films. Hanson’s most Hitchcockian work is 1987 film The Bedroom Window, which, like the title suggests, can be described as some kind of variation of Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
Film is based on Witnesses, novel by Anne Holden. Plot is set in Baltimore and starts one night when young corporate executive Terry Lambert (played by Steve Guttenberg) leaves office party in order to secretly bring Sylvia Wentworth (played by Isabelle Huppert) to his apartment. They have sex and afterwards Sylvia, after hearing screams coming from the street, goes to look from the window and sees red-headed man (played by Brad Greenquist) assaulting young woman (played by Elizabeth McGovern). Her attempts to open window distract assailant and make him escape. At first, both Terry and Sylvia disregard the incident, but later learn about young woman being raped and killed nearby and think that the assailant is likely a serial killer. Sylvia, however, happens to be married to Terry’s boss Colin Wenthworth (played by Paul Shenar) so she doesn’t want to give statement to police. Terry volunteers to do it instead, being carefully briefed by Sylvia about assailant’s physical description and other details. His plan, however, terribly wrong and not only assailant, whose name is Chris Henderson, goes free, but he becomes likely suspect for police. To make things worse, Henderson is aware that Sylvia saw him and decides to silence her permanently. Terry will have to rely to his surviving victim, waitress named Denise, to prove his innocence and Henderson’s guilt.
Hanson directed this film with great sense of style, aided by famed cinematographer Gilbert Taylor who puts Baltimore locations – which would become quite popular among film and television producers in subsequent years – to good use. Casting at first seems unusual, especially in the case of Steve Guttenberg, actor specialised for silly comedies, who here plays serious role of Hitchcockian archetypal “ordinary man in extraordinary situation”. His boyish looks, however, help the film and make credible some of his irresponsible actions that would get him in trouble. Great French actress Isabelle Huppert, appearing in Hollywood film for the first time since Heaven’s Gate fiasco, is very good as archetypal Hitchockian icy blonde (and, unlike Hitchcock’s icy blondes, appears naked in couple of scenes). Elizabeth McGovern becomes more noticeable only later in film, but her somewhat more earthly and “girl next door” looks create sharp contrast with Huppert and make her character’s actions more plausible. The Bedroom Window is most intriguing in the first half, when it sets up characters and plot, but becomes more disappointing in the second half, when it relies too much on convenient (and sometimes not that plausible) plot twists, leading to predictable action-packed finale. Fans of Hitchcock’s thrillers, however, might be pleased by Hanson’s work which, even when vastly inferior in comparison to those by Master of Suspense, looks much better than most thriller today.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39074-the-bedroom-window Critic: AA
