Open Window
February 2009 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Independent films often score through sincerity. A dedicated director assembles a cast, often with a few name actors who work for minimum wage because they believe in the project, provides a good script (which attracted the actors in the first place), and sure guidance. Everyone believes in the project, and this faith is often rewarded with understated yet dazzling truth and honesty. That’s exactly what has happened with Open Window, a film that goes for the heart and then in retrospect tickles the brain as well.

The movie does not deal with an easy topic: rape, a subject director Mia Goldman knows firsthand. The treatment could have been sensationalist and loaded with melodrama, but Goldman insists, in a supplemental interview, that 90 percent of rapes are like the one portrayed in this movie. They do not involve the police or overt angst. Rather, they have to do with moving on after experiencing a traumatic event, and it is this recovery period with which Goldman is concerned.

Robin Tunney stars as Izzy, a young woman who works as a photographer’s assistant. She is in a living-together relationship that has just gone to the proposal stage, and she has said yes. Her boyfriend, Peter (Joel Edgerton), has had to work late one night, and Izzy retires with a cup of tea to a little shed that has become her photography workshop. A man appears and attacks and rapes her. Peter comes home, finds Izzy, and rushes her to the hospital where she denies the rape kit. There is no effort to catch her attacker. Later, in a somewhat surprising disclosure, we find out why.

The relationship between Peter and Izzy changes dramatically, and the bulk of the movie is about those changes and an ultimate growth of the relationship, a positive event triggered by a negative one. Goldman, who also wrote the script, chooses not to dwell on the violence, though there are bits and pieces of it shown through flashback. Rather, the story is more gentle, dealing with the frustrations that Peter encounters in trying to help Izzy and her gradual emergence back into the world. Interestingly, the story is as much about him as about her.

For the first 15 minutes of the movie, I was puzzled by the cast, which seemed to be under acting. Later I realized that what they were giving out was the most difficult thing to achieve: acting that was so natural that the characters seemed entirely real. Tunney hasn’t really had a role before that allowed her to shine as much as she does here, and award-winning Australian Edgerton is thoroughly convincing as a sensitive American man. Scott Wilson is on hand to play Peter’s chain-smoking father, and Elliott Gould turns in a beautifully restrained yet concerned performance as Izzy’s dad. The only fly in the ointment is Cybill Shepherd, shrill and demanding as Izzy’s Mom.

The DVD transfers are very good. One doesn’t expect polished cinematography in a movie like this; it has an independent look in a very good sense. Likewise, the audio is subservient to the dialogue and music. There are no big explosions or thundering sounds in the surrounds, but there are some nice ambient ones from time to time, and the dialogue is clean and clear. As for extras, there’s an amiable and informed commentary with director Goldman, producers Thomas Brand and Midge Sanford, cinematographer Denis Maloney, and editor Heather Persons, as well as two short featurettes, one on the general production and one an interview with Goldman, who discusses her own rape and how it influenced her decision to write and direct Open Window.

Goldman has been a film editor for years, working on titles big and small. Movies such as 2010, Silverado, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding will be familiar to most readers. She brings such a sure sense of structure and balance to Open Window that one is tempted to predict a bright future for her as a director. All of the actors here are worth seeing; their dedication comes through, to make this independent filmmaking at its best. I doubt that regular Hollywood personnel could have made this movie. Due to its topic, it won’t play at many theaters, so thanks to Image for making it available so all can see it.

• Go Back