Johnny Depp in a solid King film.

Well, after Dreamcatcher, I needed a break.

Or a drink. Or a coma.

Fortunately the next film up was Secret Window, starring Mr. Depp of piratey fame (though my favorite role he’s done is in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).

Secret Window is at its heart, well, a King story about the perils of being a creative personality. In that regard, it follows Misery, The Shining and The Dark Half cinematically, and any number of King stories from print.

Write what you know, I suppose. (Although I hope that he hasn’t had as many monster attacks as in his stories).

Depp plays the King-analogue in Secret Window, aka Mort Rainey, a bitter and misanthropic writer going through a fairly acrimonious divorce, which started when he caught his wife having an affair in a sleazy hotel; she left him for her adulterous partner, and now he’s holed up in the cabin he writes at. (King trope alert: in Misery, Dark Half and Secret Window, the writer character doesn’t work at home, but instead at a retreat cabin. You can also put The Shining in that list, though it was more of a second job, less of a vacay)

Rainey’s life of Mountain Dew and sleeping away afternoons while ducking his wife’s phone calls is interrupted by the appearance of one John Shooter, played by John Turturro (in a pretty solid performance I think). Shooter has a problem with Mort; he accuses Mort of plagiarizing one of his stories, a not-completely-unreasonable accusation, as the audience learns Mort did in fact steal once before in his early writing career.

Only this time, Mort didn’t do it. He just can’t prove it, and doesn’t want to deal with the real world at any rate, since that would mean acknowledging the end of his marriage, amongst other things. Shooter insists upon forcing the issue, and begins a campaign of terror against Rainey which he promises to call off if proof of Rainey’s authorship of the work can be produced. Unfortunately for Mort this isn’t easily done, and things rapidly get worse and worse with Shooter, leading to… well, I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s interesting.

This is well-acted, paced, shot, and a great palate cleanser after the cinematic abortion that was Dreamcatcher. It’s a good movie, if not world-changing, and Depp and Turturro really get deep into their roles.

Recommended.

Next Week: Riding the Bullet
Last Week: Dreamcatcher, which sucks sucks sucks!