The first thing I thought as I watched the trailer for The Woman in the Window was, “This reminds me an awful lot of Rear Window with a 2020s update.”
The second thing I thought was, “But is it a Rear Window remake?”
The plot looks similar, but also a bit different. Let’s dive a little deeper into this case.
The Woman in the Window synopsis
Here’s the description from Netflix:
Confined to her home by agoraphobia, a psychologist becomes obsessed with her new neighbors —and solving a brutal crime she witnesses from her window.
This description is similar to Rear Window, except James Stewart’s character was confined to his apartment because of a broken leg, not a psychological condition. But both Stewart and Adams’ characters witness murders.
Speaking of the cast, let’s see who’s in The Woman in the Window.
The Woman in the Window cast
Instead of the always-affable James Stewart and the stunning Grace Kelly who were legends of their time that starred in Rear Window, The Woman in the Window stars notable actors of our time.
Leading the cast is Amy Adams, who has received multiple Oscar nominations.
Another Oscar-nominated actress who’s in the movie is Jennifer Jason Leigh. There’s even a couple of stars who have won Academy Awards for their roles in other movies, such as Oscar-winners Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore.
Other stars include Anthony Mackie and Wyatt Russell, both of whom you might recognize from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Fred Hechinger (News of the World), and Brian Tyree Henry (Godzilla vs. Kong, Atlanta).
With such amazing talent, it’s no wonder this is a movie mystery/thriller fans are anticipating. And though it’s unfortunate the pandemic has kept The Woman in the Window from getting a theatrical release, it works out for us that it will make its streaming premiere on Netflix!
The movie was originally scheduled to premiere in theaters in 2019, but then it got delayed until 2020, and then… well, we all know how that went. Many 2020 theatrical releases got pushed to 2021 or beyond, and with this one, it won’t be hitting the movies at all.
But let’s get back to the issue at hand: Is The Woman in the Window a remake of Rear Window?
What is The Woman in the Window based on?
The movie is actually based on a novel of the same name by A. J. Finn. While it’s not a remake of Rear Window per se, Finn’s bio on Amazon states that Hitchcock movies definitely inspired his writing style:
The Woman in the Window was inspired by a range of experiences: my lifelong love affair with suspense fiction, from the Sherlock Holmes stories I devoured as a kid to the work of Patricia Highsmith, whom I studied at the graduate level at Oxford; my passion for classic cinema, especially the films of Alfred Hitchcock; and my struggles with depression and mental health.
So that explains the heavy Rear Window overtones.
The Woman in the Window starts streaming on Netflix on May 14.
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