There isn’t anything overly special about David Koepp’s Secret Window. It’s not any more tense, interesting or entertaining than many of the other psychological thrillers out there. However, it’s enough of all of those things to be given a pass.

A writer is accused of plagiarism by a strange man who appears on his doorstep one morning, a man who then proceeds to haunt him for “stealing his story”. I seem to remember this film being a lot better the first time I saw it. Subsequent viewings later, the film seems to have deteriorated in quality. Whether that’s down to bad memory or my honed critical way of looking at films that’s caused it, I don’t really know. Whatever the reason there’s no doubting that weaknesses have become blatantly apparent.

I think my sudden bitterness towards this film has got a little something to do with the fact that I recently finished reading the Stephen King book it’s based on. It’s not really fair to compare two such different mediums and point out the inevitable difference between the two. Undoubtedly there are going to be huge differences and I now, having read the “Secret Window, Secret Garden” story, understand all those people who say, “This isn’t in the book... this isn’t how it happens,” and the like. It’s not the film’s fault that the readers should turn against it because of its deviation from the source material. You have to judge a film separately; things needs to be adapted and changed to work in the medium of film. I understand this completely but a part of me still gets a little annoyed when some plot points or character details differ from the book.

I think the problems with Secret Window start with just how ordinary it feels, perhaps not “ordinary” per se but just “nothing special”. It sort of plods along adequately, ticking all the right boxes but it never gets to much of an impressive level. In its attempts to hit the psychological and personal levels of pain and anguish it doesn’t really get there, you can see the attempts all throughout the film, some more admirable than others, but it doesn’t quite cut it. There are some interesting direction techniques, with some quite sophisticated and convincing special effects and it has two or three scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat.