SECRET WINDOW (2004)
Familiar Stephen King stuff, a troubled writer, marriage on the rocks, in an isolated country house. His evil alter ego is a discrete external character (or so it seems) menacing the protagonist and those close to him. The theme has an interesting literary twist, but I could see the denouement, which I watched without an ounce of suspense, coming from miles away. Yet it’s one of those movies, its setting, its characters, intimacy and pacing, its formulaic conflict, that is oddly agreeable, like a comfortable old porch. Johnny Depp’s cranky, appealingly campy performance is very entertaining. John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton, Len Cariou.