Review of The Bedroom Window

Hitchcock wannabe from writer-director Curtis Hanson, adapting Anne Holden's novel "The Witnesses", about an extramarital affair that hits a snag when the married woman sees an attack happen on the street from her lover's bedroom window. She feels the need to report the crime but doesn't want to give herself away, so the boyfriend reports it to the police instead--using her description as his eyewitness account. Terrific premise for a pulpy thriller, but Hanson is too 'clean' for his own good; utilizing a bland, TV cop drama style--which holds the suspense in check-- Hanson is far too square for the milieu (this movie could really use a little grit or sleaze, like in a '40s detective magazine). Hanson's screenplay has the ingredients for a finely-wrought thriller but, though his plot is absorbing, the picture gets more and more absurd as it progresses. Viewers who find themselves hooked right away probably won't mind much, and Elizabeth McGovern gives her best performance to date as the mugging victim. **1/2 from ****