Open Windows

The rise of the internet has created a whole new sub-genre of movies, that of the “screenlife” category. The entire movie takes place on a computer screen. Like its cousin, the found-footage movie, the screenlife genre requires a script that can somehow justify people not getting up from their computers or not putting down their phones. These almost always require some contrivances that not only suspend disbelief, but put it in a coma, much in the same way as found footage movies somehow always have someone pointing a camera in a convenient direction despite the terrors around them. I will give Open Windows this: it does find some original ways to execute the genre’s requirement. Whether those always work is another story. The movie is about a man who runs a fan website for an actress. He’s supposed to have won a contest to have a dinner with her, but when he gets a video call saying it’s been cancelled, the caller offers him something else; a way to watch her privately and see his crush in her most intimate of moments. It quickly breaks down into a hostage situation of sorts, which facilitates the gimmick, even if one has to ignore how technology works for the plot to happen. And that’s one of the film’s biggest issues; you need to ignore a LOT of things. The plot holes are a big part of it, but so is the needlessly convoluted plot, with multiple hacker groups, global digital terrorism, and some twists that stretch credulity as if it were in a taffy puller. Given the premise, it seems to take place in real time, but there is some major time dilation going on in parts, and it is distracting. It is shockingly easy to get lost in this movie’s unwarranted corkscrew storyline and fall into the pits logic catapults over. It’s all the more frustrating when the marketing is selling this as a 21st century Rear Window, and it most certainly is not that. That movie was about voyeurism and the secrets of suburbia. If Open Windows resembles anything Hitchcock (and it shouldn’t be compared to him at all, but for argument’s sake here), it would be something like North By Northwest or The 39 Steps. But it’s still a far cry from those. That all being said, it’s still engaging to watch. Sasha Grey does a fine job as an actress who has grown disenchanted with her life. I love Elijah Wood’s recent turn to making movies that please him instead of fill his coffers, namely horror and thriller movies. Him and Daniel Radcliffe have chosen to put artistic satisfaction over career advancement, and it shows in their performances in movies like this. Elijah Wood puts it all out there, because he wants to do this movie, just like he did with Maniac and Come To Daddy. I also have to commend the direction on a visual level here; I’ve only one screenlife movie in my history to compare it to, being the mediocre Unfriended. That movie didn’t bother to focus in on any part of the screen, just letting the “camera” watch the entire screen instead. It results in a screen that is overly busy, like visual noise. The dedication to verisimilitude broke the immersion because we did not need to see the main character opening her media player app, or other windows not doing anything. Open Windows does not; when it wants the viewer to focus on something, it zooms in on one of the windows, but you’re always aware it’s a  computer program. I came across this movie because I’d seen another of the director’s movies, Colossal. That was an enjoyable movie, more so than this. It was weird and had a fresh take on a story of self-discovery. Open Windows doesn’t, really. It’s a high tech version of a wrong-man-wrong-place thriller, but the modern trappings don’t really do anything to hide it in the way Colossal did with its charm (and kaiju). It’s a decent watch, certainly better than average, but it’s by no means unique, and if screenlife isn’t your thing, this won’t be the movie to convince you it’s viable.