Secret Window A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 1:46 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Johnny Depp is Mort Rainey. He’s living at the vacation cottage in the woods because he and wife, Amy (Maria Bello), are getting divorced. It seems she was cheating on him, he caught her, and it’s six months later and he’s got writer’s block. He likes to sleep a lot, but who doesn’t? Then one day a strange man, John Shooter (John Turturro) ends up at his door. John is tall and menacing looking, and he’s insisting that Mort stole his story, the one about the "Secret Window," except that Mort ruined the original ending. John doesn’t want much, only for Mort to get the story re-published, this time with the proper conclusion. Mort thinks this guy is a whack-job, dismisses him, but after reading John’s copy of his story, well, now he’s wondering if somehow he did steal the story – it seems Mort did this once before and had to settle with the other guy. Mort confronts John, asking him when he wrote his story, John says 1997, Mort says his got published in 1994 and he has a copy of the magazine to prove it. John tells Mort he’s got three days to come up with the magazine or there will be problems, and to prove his point, well, John leaves a note saying not to tell the cops about him.

What does Mort do? Of course, he goes to the local sheriff, then calls his buddy, Ken (Charles S. Dutton) in the City for some help. I won’t spoil anything else in this movie other than to say things don’t go too well for Mort in the next couple of days, but in the end, he gives John the ending he wanted.

I didn’t realize the original story was written by Stephen King until the opening credits started, and as I saw his name flash by it peaked my interest because now I knew things might get a little weird, and weird they did. But the key to this movie wasn’t the weirdness King wrote into it, it was the great acting by John Torturro and Johnny Depp. John Shooter wasn’t meant to be a violent man, but rather a menacing man who at any time could snap you in two, and Torturro did a great job at showing this. When Shooter asked Mort for his hat back after he left it on Mort’s porch, you simply had the feeling that if he didn’t get it back, Mort’s stealing his story was going to be the least of his worries.  Then there is Johnny Depp, consistently putting in a great performance in whatever style of role. For this one he’s the disheveled, broken-down, confused, and flustered man, wondering how he is going to get out of this situation when it appears so simple, that all he needs to do is get his copy of the magazine from his soon-to-be ex-wife. Yet he’s easily distracted, forgetting the task at hand, and leading things to just get worse for him.

A good suspense movie leaves you on the edge of you seat, maybe knowing what’s going to happen and eagerly awaiting it, or sometimes throwing you a curveball, and "Secret Window" does both. I really liked the movie, and maybe the curveball will be obvious to you, but me, I missed it. And sure, there are a couple of things that don’t make sense, like how all of the wood gets repaired in his cabin, but forget about that and just enjoy another good performance by Depp. It’s 4 stars out of 5 for "Secret Window" from me.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!