by: Nabila Rhapsodios
I stumbled upon the movie adaptation on Netflix inadvertently while browsing Netflix's movie list. So, yeah, I read and watched simultaneously. Thankfully, the movie was short, and the pace was leisurely. Otherwise, I would have fallen asleep.
Anna Fox is the central character who has agoraphobia, which means she fears stepping out into open space. So, that's why she keeps herself safe and protected in her own house. She sees a psychiatrist often, and the psychiatrist orders her to lend her basement to someone and follow the yoga exercise that he arranged, so these people look after herself and specifically act as her mediator to the outside needs. She sometimes disobeys her psychiatrist since she sees herself as capable of looking after herself, being a psychiatrist herself.
The house across hers has a new resident. Anna successfully gets their identity; the Russells. She tails them through her telescope. She does that to all her neighbors since this is another of her connections to the outside world. One chance, much to her surprise, a pretty woman visits her, and Anna deduces this woman is the wife of the husband's house in front of her. The woman neither confirms nor corrects her. The woman and Anna spend the day laughing and enjoying each other's company as if they were old friends. Anna says goodbye to the woman who comes back to her house.
Anna spies as usual until her eyes catch a gore flash on her telescope one evening. The woman is stabbed. Bleeding, the woman mouthes "Help" and pounds the window's glass. Anna runs for help after long deliberation. Sadly, she stops midway, and after that, she faints due to her agoraphobia. This event is the beginning of her adventure, to tell the truth about what happened to the woman while the police, the neighbors, and the friends do not have high trust in what she says and will say because Anna's condition is questionable. She not only has agoraphobia, but delusions struck her frequently on a daily basis.
MY IMPRESSION
One of the best-read slumps in 2023. The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn. The story of a successful female shrink who became depressed and developed agoraphobia after an inexplicable tale. One day, she saw a woman stabbed across her house. She believed what she saw was true, but sadly, it was not easy to convince anyone due to her unstable psyche and drunken habit.
I was holding my breath while the reading progressed. What complex characters; they're all hiding something. The author cautioned me as a reader that I would prefer to avoid what I see behind every page. If I had followed his "direction," I would not have finished the book. "Go. Disregard his rule!". My mind screamed that so loud. And by the end of the book, he proved me right. "Damn. Why did it turn out like this?" was my reaction when closing the book. The twists were so brutal.
The negative from the novel was not suitable for those with short-term memory problems because using the timestamp to signify the vital clue. Trust me; this story required flipping pages back and forth often.
I wish to reread The Woman in the Window for the first time. This book is wild.
Not long after reading the book, I watched the movie on Netflix. It is hard for me to say something good about the film. The lighting that sets the mood and Amy Adams's acting are good things in the movie. Everything else did disappoint in certain aspects, but I understood the production team needed to make it a short film.
A psychological thriller murder mystery in the POV of a mentally ill woman written in the book was perfect. 10/10. The film version could have been better. It's safe to say 4/10. The movie started so well but descended into farce. Big names did not even lift my review score.
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