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Secret Window | 2004 | PG-13 | - 3.7.5

Based on Stephen King's novella "Secret Window, Secret Garden": Johnny Depp stars as Morton Rainey, a writer who's frustrated due to a recent divorce and a lack of new ideas for short stories. That's when he is confronted and then stalked by an odd man (John Turturro) who insists that Rainey has stolen one of his stories. Rainey struggles to prove that he is not a plagiarist. Also with Maria Bello, Charles S. Dutton and Timothy Hutton. Directed by David Koepp. [1:46]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man and a woman (she is married to another man) are shown in bed together in a few scenes, and in one they kiss briefly (we see the man's bare back and her bare shoulders). A man and a woman kiss, and a man and a woman hug. A woman wears low-cut tank tops in several scenes, revealing cleavage, bare shoulders and back, her bare abdomen and lower back.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man slams a hatchet into the throat of a man (there's a very quick spurt of blood) and a screwdriver into the temple of another man (we don't see the wound). A man hits a man in the face with a shovel and he falls to the ground, then the man with the shovel approaches the body, raises the shovel and brings it down hard (we don't see the body as it is being hit). A man threatens a woman, she turns to run, he grabs her by the hair and swings a pair of scissors at her; she runs to her car, he breaks the window, grabs her and drags her out and along the ground, he stabs her in the leg with a screwdriver (we see blood on her leg and foot), she kicks him in the face (we see his a bloody mouth), he pushes her off a set of stairs, and she falls on ground and hits her head on a rock (we see bloody patch on her forehead and she moans). A man with a shovel approaches an incapacitated woman, the camera moves out, we hear her moaning and then hear birds flutter (it is implied that he has killed her). Two men are found dead in a car; one has a screwdriver in his temple (blood trickles from the wound), and the other has blood on his throat and chest from a hatchet blow (we see the bloody hatchet on the car seat, as well as blood on the interior and windows of the car). A dog lies dead with a screwdriver in his neck and blood trickling down its throat, chest and around its body. A man pulls a screwdriver out of a dead man's head (we hear a crunch and a squish) and he is startled when another dead body tips over. A car with two dead bodies in it is pushed off a cliff and crashes into water below. Two men fight, one swings a shovel at the other, and one holds the shovel across the other's throat and lifts him in the air. A man barges into a hotel room, finds his wife sleeping with another man (they are covered with sheets to the shoulders), and yells angrily at them (we see this scene several times). A man sees a reflection in a window of something running through his house, he grabs a fireplace poker and investigates, breaking a mirror and a glass shower door and finding a small mouse in the tub. A man approaches a car (in the dark) where a man is slumped over the steering wheel, and when the man knocks on the window he is startled by the man's movement. A man threatens another man with gruesome and violent acts (nailing the man's wife to a wall and taking a chainsaw to him). A man points a gun at a man and a woman. A man shoves a man who swings at him and punches a car window (we see him with a bandaged hand later). A man pounds on a door, then threatens a man inside the house. We hear that a house has been burned down and see the charred rubble (we see the house explode in another scene). A man throws an ashtray into a wall, making a hole that begins to crack the wall and the ceiling. A man has a dream that shows a door being pounded off its hinges and a figure coming through the doorway with a cover over his head and face. A man dreams that he's perched high over a raging sea and then falling (he wakes up when he hits the floor). A man is shown filling a hole with dirt (where he has just buried his dog). We see bruises on a man's arms from an earlier fight. A woman grieves over having lost her baby. A man says to his dog, "If you don't go bite her I'll kill her" (about the housekeeper). A man vomits after seeing dead bodies. A man urinates (we hear the trickle and flush).

LANGUAGE 5 - 1 F-word, 22 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 13 mild obscenities, 1 religious profanity, 5 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - People are shown smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. It is implied that a man has a drinking problem.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Plagiarism, infidelity, dreams, intimidation, divorce, love, mental illness, shame, arson, degradation, humiliation, sloth, fantasy vs. reality, celebrity stalking.

MESSAGE - Sometimes fantasy can blur into reality.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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