There always seems to be difficulties involved when trying to translate a book by Stephen King into a feature film. Sometimes it works beautifully, such as the case with “Shawshank Redemption”, “Misery” and “Stand By Me.” But most of the time, they either run the range from average to just gosh darn awful. The main problem with turning King’s books into films, keeping in mind that I’m a huge fan, is that he often deals with the psychological horrors that plague mankind and that can be way too difficult to ever successfully visualize onscreen. “Secret Window”, is based on the novella (think a really long short story) “Secret Window, Secret Garden”, which can be found in King’s 1990 book, “Four Past Midnight.” It involves a writer by the name of Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp), who has secluded himself in a cabin following a rather painful divorce. He ends up being the target of a rather obsessive man in black, John Shooter (John Turturro), who claims Rainey plagiarized his work. To make matters worse, he’s mad because the writer went so far as to screw up the ending.

All of Rainey’s attempts to prove that he wrote the book way before Shooter claims he wrote his are met with problems. As Shooter becomes increasingly agitated and violent, Rainey realizes that the stakes are much higher than he anticipated.

I can’t go into the plotting anymore than that, as anything else I might add would be considered a spoiler. As with many of King’s works, everything may not be what it seems, and whatever surprises lay in store for the viewer should remain surprises.

If there are any problems to point out with “Secret Window”, it would only be with some of the scripting. As I mentioned before, adapting some of King’s work, especially when it so psychological in nature, is a difficult task. If you read the novella, you might have problems with some of the changes, but not so much as to ruin the film for you. What makes the movies work is Johnny Depp’s performance as Rainey. Often underrated, Depp has a way of getting into the skin, as it were, of the characters he portrays. Years ago he shed the leading man image, and has continuously proven himself to be one of the most versatile characters actors working today. There are very few actors that can play just about any role, and Depp is one of them. A few months back, he was able to completely sell himself as a swaggering pirate, and now follows that up with a totally believable performance as the mystery writer whose sanity is teetering on the edge.

Unfortunately, “Secret Window” did not do well in theatres, so it’s coming to DVD fairly quickly. Well, I say unfortunately, but in reality it is probably the best thing that can happen to the film. Having it out on DVD, especially so soon after its theatrical release, will pretty much guarantee it will gain a much larger audience. Plus, it gives some of the opportunity to take the extra features that Sony / Columbia Tristar decided to add. And considering the low box office take, the studio did pretty well.

Hands down, the best feature if the Behind the Scenes featurette. Coming in at over an hour, it is broken up into three separate parts. “Secret Window: From Book to Film” gives us a look at the difficulties of visualizing a King book, complete with interviews of much of the cast. I will warn you to watch this after you’ve seen the film as much of the plotting is given away here. “Secret Window: A Look Through It”, offers up some great info on why certain scenes were shot a particular way as well as giving viewers some detail into the overall look of the film. Finally, there is “Secret Window: Secrets Revealed”, which you HAVE to watch AFTER seeing the movie. It includes an in-depth discussion about the movie’s ending with director David Koepp. Seeing this first would definitely ruin the movie for you.

The DVD release also has a director’s commentary, which is fairly enlightening, but some of his comments seemed a little repetitive as they were touched on in the featurette. There are a few deleted scenes, most of which don’t really offer much, but do check out the extended ending. Last, but not least, are some animatics of a few of the film’s sequences. This is cool if you’re into storyboarding.

“Secret Window” doesn’t fall into the ‘Best of…” category of adaptations of King’s work, but it delivers where it should thanks to the strong performances by the cast.

Directed by: David Koepp
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton
Extras: Four Deleted Scenes with Optional Director’s Commentary, Three Behind the Scenes Featurettes, Animated Storyboards, Writer / Director David Koepp Commentary
Specifications: Widescreen (2.40:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 6/22/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Violence / Terror, Sexual Content, Language)
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We'll give Secret Window a C+.