THE BEDROOM WINDOW. Directed and written by Curtis Hanson; produced by Martha Schumacher for De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Starring Steve Guttenberg, Elizabeth McGovern and Isabelle Huppert. Rated R (nudity, a little violence and vulgar language).
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Well, Rear Window it ain't. But The Bedroom Window is a nifty little thriller nonetheless.
The story is nicely complicated and very Hitchcockian. It involves an ordinary guy, Terry (Guttenberg), who indulges in a little hanky-panky. But his indiscretion ends him up in a peck of unrelated trouble.
Thriller fans will definitely enjoy it. But I can't recommend it to anyone already nervous about coming home late at night alone ... although the plucky Denise (McGovern) makes you feel pretty brave.
Terry's new lover, Sylvia (Huppert), witnesses an attack (upon Denise, we learn later) from his bedroom window ... where she's not supposed to be. So what could be simpler than for Terry to pretend that he was the witness, right?
Wrong, of course. This simple answer to a thorny dilemma leads to more and more complications, the typical "tangled web" you love to see as the result of such a falsehood.
The Bedroom Window builds suspense skillfully. A lot of the action is predictable, but it's the fun kind of predictability, when we know what just has to happen, but the characters on screen can't seem to foresee anything.
There are a few surprises, too, though, to keep us on our toes. The courtroom scene is a good example. A couple of red herrings are the only flaws in an otherwise quite satisfactory thriller plot. (I won't tell you what the red herrings are, however, so you can be fooled, as I was.)
Terry has his faults and weaknesses, but he's decent and likeable and we can sympathize with him easily. This is the kind of character that Guttenberg plays very well. He also does a good job on the romantic side of the story—both with the slinky Huppert and the down-to-earth McGovern. His goofy grin (which drove me to distraction in Cocoon) isn't even too objectionable here.
Huppert is good as the charming but hard-hearted Sylvia. And McGovern is a great spunky girl-next-door type, just as she was in Ordinary People. Brad Greenquist is positively chilling as the dangerous yet clever psychotic that Sylvia sees. And Wallace Shawn shines in a small role as the psycho's defense attorney.
Although the case and story of The Bedroom Window aren't in the same class with Hitchcock's best, his tradition is deffnitely alive and well here.
January 28, 1987