As a watcher of movies, it is getting quite enjoyable to see Johnny Depp in any role. His Pirates of the Caribbean character, Captain Jack Sparrow, is one of the best characters created by an actor in movie history, in my opinion. With that being said, Johnny Depp does another great job in an otherwise boring movie, Secret Window. The movie is yet another one based on a Stephen King story that seems to be showing that the old man is losing his touch. However it's hard to tell what is worse, the story itself or the screenplay.

The story is about a writer, Mort Rainey, played by Johnny Depp, who is separated from his wife, played by Maria Bello (who played Mel Gibson's hooker in Payback and most recently was in The Cooler). Mort lives in the woods and is writing a story when he is approached by a man named John Shooter, who claims that Mort stole one of his stories years before. Shooter, (played wonderfully by John Turturro) tells Mort that unless he can provide proof that he wrote the story and published before Shooter, bad things are going to happen. To emphasize the point, Mort wakes up to discover that his dog has been killed by Shooter. Mort hires a private investigator, Ken Karsch (played by Charles S. Dutton) to help find and scare Shooter away. The first 45 minutes of the movie is the best part of the movie, this is where the tension is at its best. From there on it goes down hill.

As I have mentioned before, Depp does a good job with a weak character. He adds the right amount of humor at the right times, shows fear well and does a good job at becoming psychotic (no where near another Stephen King writer gone crazy movie, The Shinning, the Jack Nicholson version) but still good none the less. Also doing an admirable job is John Turturro as Shooter. His intensity carries the movie even though the character at times doesn't make since. The rest of the actors are marginal at best, Bello and Dutton both seem like they are collecting a paycheck and not really wanting to do anything with weak characters. Oh by the way the reason why Mort and Amy-his wife- are separated is because Amy cheated on Mort with I guy name Ted (who is played invisibly by Timothy Hutton). But I don't blame the actors for putting in mediocre performances; it's either the scriptwriter or the writer of the story.

So the reason why this movie blows comes down to either Director/writer David Koepp, or story creator Stephen King, and my vote is for King. The reasons aren't anything scientific I just look at their recent achievements. Koepp has written in the last few years the following movie's, Stir of Echoes, Spider-Man, Lost World: Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible. He also directed Stir of Echoes and Trigger Effect(Ok that's not so great.) I find that almost all of the movies he has scripted have been entertaining, except Snake Eyes, which just sucked. Stephen King on the other hand has recently written such stories turned into movies as Storm of the Century , and Dreamcatcher, which sucks so bad I haven't finished my review of it yet. So I blame King, and give Koepp the benefit of the doubt.

Anyway, rent this movie if you like Johnny Depp, or you want to see some good acting by Depp and Turturro. If you don't like them, don't bother, the movie is just ok and quite forgettable.

Brian - the Naked Gun