Rear Window

"Rear Window" has such a fantastic set piece to it that you can't help but admire it. The combination of different apartment styles that allow varied windows into the lives of the inhabitants. From the musician who lives in a studio apartment to the dancing girl who does her routine every day in front of a big window to the smallest glimpse of a newly wed couple where the shade is down most of the time. It is at once alive and you accept it.

You also accept that after six weeks of being stuck in a wheel chair that Jimmy Stewart is fully fascinated by his voyeurism. There is always something going on outside his window. When the dancer isn't on display, then a poor lonely woman is coping with life or a long married couple is arguing excessively. So much so that Stewart can not be pried from his viewing even when his nurse is around or more so still when his beautiful lady is there trying to distract him with herself.

Grace Kelly is looking gorgeous as ever and I can't help but recall what a friend once said as we discussed beautiful actresses. "If I'd been Jimmy Stewart in that movie, I sure as hell wouldn't have been looking out that rear window." But you know what? Stewart sells it. His rant about the kind of woman that is right for him, lets you know immediately that he thinks Lisa has it wrong about him, that it will never work out.

When he begins to witness odd things in one of the apartments, he suspects murder and slowly attempts to piece together what happened all from his window and also to intrique the cops. Lisa gets caught up in this and they bond in a way that he never thought possible. There is some nice tension towards the end of the film that works well. Of course everthing from the Simpsons to the recent "Disturbia" has paid homage to this film and it certainly is well done.

Does the suspense work? Well, truth be told its kind of a gimmick. One which doesn't really keep it going but Stewart is convincing and his supporting players give solid performances as well. So you don't really care that the mystery isn't all that interesting. But the fact that the action takes place almost exclusively in one set and quite a bit of it in one room, it is fantastic proof that you don't need varied sets to make a film good.