hitsvilleuk: Open Windows is an intriguing concoction. A thriller confined purely to the screen of a
hitsvilleuk: Open Windows is an intriguing concoction. A thriller confined purely to the screen of a computer - the titular windows being that of a computer screen - directed by Spanish genre auteur Nacho Vigalondo, and starring recent crown prince of low-budget B-moves Elijah Wood and arguably the world’s most famous former porn star Sasha Grey. Wood stars as Nick Chambers, the webmaster of a fan site for rising starlet Jill Goddard (Grey). Covering a preview event of Jill’s latest film in the hopes of winning a contest for a date with her, Nick is contact by a mysterious master hacker only know as Chord (Neil Maskell) with a rather malicious grudge against Ms Goddard. Nick soon finds himself as a pawn in a very dangerous game Open Windows is remarkably similar to Grand Piano, that other Spanish-made, Wood-starring B-movie from earlier in the year; both feature a sweaty, nervous Elijah Wood manipulated from afar by a threatening disembodied voice. It’s even more similar in that they’re both slightly ludicrous but, at times, genuinely compelling. However Open Windows doesn’t juggle its conceit quite as well; its numerous leaps in logic and (hopefully) huge licence in technological capabilities are thinly papered over with just enough stylistic flair to distract from these flaws, but only momentarily. From a simplistic Phone Booth-esque set-up, Vigalondo throws more and more ingredients into the broth (double-crosses, ulterior motives and a random group of French hackers popping up out of nowhere) until the individual flavours become indistinguishable from one another. There’s interesting glimpses at a commentary on sex in our society, from voyeurism to sexual violence, the public’s culpability in exploitation as well as the recent hacking and leaks of celebrity photographs (although with that being such a recent occurrence, it’s likely that was lucked into), but nothing is really explicit enough to make a definite comment. The casting of Grey turns things very meta; despite being tame by the standards of her former industry, this performance still ends up with Grey being far more exposed than ever before. The cast are perfectly decent, but never really given much to do; Wood is fine as the anxious central puppet, Grey’s your typical damsel-in-distress and Maskell tiptoes the line between threatening and friendly with ease (as is obvious to anyone who’s seen his work in Kill List and Utopia). But by the time an hour has passed, the film has become so jumbled and so removed from its simple original conceit, with the action bouncing between more windows than you could care to count it’s near incomprehensible. ★★☆☆☆ -- source link