Secret Window

By PETER CALDER

Herald rating: * * *

The observant will spot the neat visual clue to the puzzle at the beginning of this thriller: the technically brilliant tracking shot under the title sequence ends on the mirror image of the main character, writer Morton Rainey (Depp), asleep on a couch. As he stirs, we realise the reflection has become the real thing; we are through the looking glass.

It's an inspired touch in an otherwise uninspired reading of the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by horror writer Stephen King, a film raised above the seriously B-grade only by the presence of the watchable Depp.

King has explored the dark side of the creative impulse before, notably in The Shining and Misery both of which were filmed. Rainey is a star author whose good times seem behind him when we meet him: holed up in his lakeside cabin, he chomps snack food and struggles not to smoke through a hurricane-force case of writer's block. This may be partly attributable to the fact that his wife (Bello) has run off with another man (Hutton).

A knock on the door introduces the improbably named John Shooter (Turturro), a glowering, Amish-like apparition clutching a grubby manuscript which he accuses Rainey of having plagiarised. He wants matters "put right" and his threats quickly escalate into harassment and worse.

You don't have to be a fan of the world's best-selling writer to pick what's happening here, and only the consistently fascinating Depp, who litters his performance with sly touches, keeps things interesting as the darkness gathers.

The problem is that what works when hinted at on paper sometimes doesn't work when shown on film. King's writing style conjures up a genuine sense of dread which allows us to forgive the plot holes - why not Google the story title to prove its publication date? Why hire an expensive bodyguard and send him home at night? But director Koepp's ambling and slightly genial approach to the horror genre make the narrative gaps yawn.

Never mind. The film wrings every last drop of suspense out of its premise with a Philip Glass score (as an American critic remarked, Glass has become the Stephen King of screen composers) and a cheesy blood-spattered ending that makes you feel a bit dumb for having gone along with the ruse in the first place.

It's a cut above the average but there's not a lot of class on show here.

Cast: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton, Len Cariou Director: David Koepp Running time: 96 mins Rating: M (violence, offensive language) Screening: Berkeley, Hoyts, Village