"You Got Me Monologuing!"
The Woman in the Window + the forgotten lesson of the Incredibles
Full clip here. Yes the correct quote is “you got me monologuing” but I’m not making a new meme image for this.
Y’all. I watched “The Woman in the Window” with Amy Adams. It was no good.
I SPOIL THE WHOLE THING BELOW.
Do we love Amy Adams? Yes we do. “Arrival” was *chefskiss*.
Was she enough to save this film? Or Gary Oldman? Or Julianne Moore? Or BOTH Captain Americas of what I like to call the Falcon Captain Buckey Winter show? No.
It was literally “Rear Window” (you know, the Hitchcock film?) but with Amy Adams and a different villain.
I’m really not sure why it needed to be made. Sure it was a book… but if the book is really “Rear Window” with a “A Beautiful Mind”/ “Sixth Sense” twist that’s obvious from the first cellphone ring… then why? Just why?
I think the biggest issue for me came when the villain was revealed. I was totally bored at that point.
SPOILERS. The son is actually a psychopath? Siiiiigh. Okay. I mean, he got her good but then he decided to explain the whole thing, long enough for her to formulate a plan to wack him with a wine bottle and start the chase that lands him falling through the skylight like a DISNEY VILLAIN (or Satan from Paradise Lost. You choose).
It’s the monologue. It’s the long self exposition of the villain we haven’t really understood enough to even be surprised by. I miss The Incredibles and their wisdom in screen writing. The villain monologue is a trope we haven’t needed since 2004 when we laughed at it, saw ourselves in the mirror, and adjusted course. But I guess we didn’t all adjust course. We decided we needed to leave the explaining in the hands of the only character given enough screen time to become coherent. Oh and is allergic to cats.
We as viewers don’t need you to hold our hands. We need you to make us the smartest person in the room (convinced we are so) and let us unravel ourselves with the truth. Explaining the ending is like a trailer that teases too much. It’s more worth skipping than even skimming for hidden gems.
“YOU SLY DOG! YOU GOT ME MONOLOGUING!”