Open Windows, 2014
Directed by Nacho Vigalondo
Starring Sasha Grey, Elijah Wood, Neil Maskell
SYNOPSIS:
An actress named Jill refuses to have dinner with Nick, a fan who won a date with her in an Internet contest. In return, a guy named Chord, posing as Jill’s campaign manager, helps Nick to follow in the footsteps of the actress from his own computer.
Sometimes you just have to take a step back from the movie you’re watching to admire what’s in front of you. You just have to drink in the thought, the planning and the genius that goes into a movie like Open Windows. In terms of telling a story with great acting, it doesn’t always work. But as a master class in creative filmmaking, there is nothing quite like Open Windows.
It feels weird to sit at a laptop and write about Open Windows when the whole movie itself takes place on a screen like the one I’m staring at right now. The laptop in the movie belongs to Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood) who is staying in a hotel in Texas watching a online press conference of the latest film staring his obsession Jill Goddard (former porn star Sasha Grey). He has won a contest so he can have a meal with her, but that meal is seemingly cancelled when a voice call comes through from a man named Chord (Neil Maskell). But his night is not over yet as Chord appears to be a master hacker and the two get into a cat and mouse game with Jill as the prize – or victim.
The story of Open Windows, while convoluted and sometimes clever, is not what people will be talking about when they’re leaving the theatre. They will instead be talking about the intricacies and detail of the filmmaking from the genius behind Time Crimes, Nacho Vigalondo. The whole move is based on Nick’s laptop screen with various windows, browsers, programs and video calls opening up on the screen to show the action. The focus for the audience then switches to each screen as the events play out in a glorious display of creativity. It’s more or less plays like a better version of the classic SEGA Mega CD game Night Trap.
Even though you are hooked into the story unfolding, you can’t help but think about just how much planning and preparation went into the movie’s production. How much effort Vigalondo went to just to ensure that all of the footage he shoots is in sync with each other so that the movie is played in, seemingly, one continuous flow. Credit to the Vigalondo, he not only accomplishes this task, but Open Windows is also not like a typical found footage flick in which the filmmakers abandon the gimmick when its convenient for their story. Vigalondo stays with this conceit right up until the bitter end and to say its impressive is a vast understatement.
Sadly, the gimmick is all the film really has. The first two thirds of Open Windows in terms of story are incredibly gripping and tense, but the film comes apart at the seems as it enters into its third act. For whatever reason, Vigalondo takes the story in a very different direction and ends up with a very confusing mess where its hard enough to keep up with the technology he’s introducing without having to then work out who is really who and what is really happening. While an intricate and twisting tale is not a bad thing, here it’s unnecessary and just serves as a distraction from a visually impressive movie. It becomes so hard to follow that you find yourself drifting further away from all of the things you loved before.
Furthermore, the acting for the most part isn’t particularly great with the usually reliable Elijah Wood struggling the most. Perhaps he had a hard time with the way the movie is shot, but he often sounds very stilted and forced in his dialogue. His character is supposed to be an awkward dork, but he just sounds like he’s reading his lines half the time rather than acting them. Conversely, Sasha Grey (who was god-awful in Would You Rather?) is tremendous as the actress who simply craves anonymity once again. Her scenes when she’s playing the actress in front of the camera are superb and she really shines during the more tense moments where she is just a pawn in the game between Nick and Chord. It says a lot about Wood’s performance when he’s being out acted by a former porn star.
But for its unneeded plot twists and sub-par acting (save Grey), Open Windows is a modern marvel of filmmaking and should be held up as an example of what you can do with this medium to tell a story. Open Windows is a movie that should have been a better concept on paper than it is in execution, but it really succeeds in what it sets out to do. Only someone like Nacho Vigalondo could have pulled this off and pull it off he has. It has a few flaws and chinks in the armour, but Open Windows is a taut and tense thrill-ride that with some of the most impressive filmmaking techniques seen in many a year.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
