If a movie requires the lead actor to spend a good chunk of his onscreen time talking to himself and Popeye is unavailable because of contractual disputes, it's hard to do better than Johnny Depp. His performance as the trebly beset writer Mort Rainey is the highlight of the underwhelming Secret Window, which opens today. This movie is a suspense thriller whose only suspense comes from an audience wondering if the picture will hit its promised 97-minute running time.
Secret Window dramatizes the plight of Mort, who is suffering from writer's block. This was triggered by the tumultuous break-up of his marriage to Amy (Maria Bello) and the protracted divorce proceedings. The writer and director, David Koepp, stages the events leading to the end of Mort's marriage so well that most of what follows is a letdown.
And what follows is Mort, who now lives in a remote cabin, sleeping his way through a depression until a thunderous knock at the door rouses him from a sofa almost as lived in as his bathrobe. He hauls his blond-tipped bedhead to the door, where he encounters John Shooter (John Turturro), which brings up Mort's Misery No. 3. Dressed ominously in a big-brimmed black hat and a work shirt buttoned to the neck -- he looks like an Amish hitman -- Shooter drawls menacingly, "You stole my book.'' Groggy and astounded, Mort is confronted with the evidence: Shooter's short story reads exactly like Mort's best-selling murder mystery Secret Window. And worse, Shooter gives Mort three days to set things right, or else.
PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA PICTURES
Much of the plot turns on Mort's getting his hands on a copy of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine to prove that he published his story before Shooter wrote his version. And on Mort's need to be home when the phone rings. In other words the film takes place in a charming little seaside town without cellphones, Internet access or a library; sadly, given the current state of affairs, only the last is not so improbable.
Secret Window was adapted by Koepp from Stephen King's novella Secret Window, Secret Garden. It has been opened up to let too much air into the room, and the sluggish pacing will allow even the drowsiest viewer to keep up with the story. A number of amusing little clues turn up, involving some snappy gestures from Depp. And the director abets the mischief by planting a copy of Tom Robbins's farcical magic-realism novel Villa Incognito in plain view.
Timothy Hutton plays Ted, the other man/other menace. (Amusingly, his dad, Jim Hutton, played Ellery Queen in an old series and would have wrapped things up before the trailer ended.) And Charles Dutton gives a gentle authority to the role of Mort's bodyguard.
May 26 to June 1 When the Qing Dynasty first took control over many parts of Taiwan in 1684, it roughly continued the Kingdom of Tungning’s administrative borders (see below), setting up one prefecture and three counties. The actual area of control covered today’s Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. The administrative center was in Taiwan Prefecture, in today’s Tainan. But as Han settlement expanded and due to rebellions and other international incidents, the administrative units became more complex. By the time Taiwan became a province of the Qing in 1887, there were three prefectures, eleven counties, three subprefectures and one directly-administered prefecture, with
It’s an enormous dome of colorful glass, something between the Sistine Chapel and a Marc Chagall fresco. And yet, it’s just a subway station. Formosa Boulevard is the heart of Kaohsiung’s mass transit system. In metro terms, it’s modest: the only transfer station in a network with just two lines. But it’s a landmark nonetheless: a civic space that serves as much more than a point of transit. On a hot Sunday, the corridors and vast halls are filled with a market selling everything from second-hand clothes to toys and house decorations. It’s just one of the many events the station hosts,
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan.
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world