Smoreni Zmaj
Good idea, but lousy realization. All in all, likable hacker thriller that kept me at the edge of my seat from time to time, but disappointed me with its excessive finale. Nothing in this movie is excellent, but everything is satisfying. I did not predict any of the twists and for me it was pretty much entertaining. Highlight of the movie is scene with lead female character getting naked in front of camera. I have no idea how they persuaded her to lose her clothes, but after so many years of eager anticipation, finally we have a chance, for the first time in a movie, to see Sasha Grey naked. :D <37/10P.S. OK, for the first time in mainstream movie :D :D :D
Steve Pulaski
Open Windows concerns an unassuming young man named Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood) wins a contest to meet Jill Godard (Sasha Grey) and enjoy a fine dinner with her. Nick has been the webmaster of a fansite dedicated to Jill, rare photos of her, gossip, and information about her forthcoming films for years, and is waiting in his hotelroom for information about the dinner when Chord (Neil Maskell), Jill's manager, calls and informs him that the contest was canceled by Jill. Nick sets before his laptop, shocked and soulcrushed at his misfortune until Chord sends Nick a private link that houses the interworkings of Jill's cellphone. Chord has hacked into her personal phone and allows Nick the ability to spy on her activity, phone calls, files, camera, and general whereabouts from hereon out. With this power comes great irresponsibility, and Nick quickly finds himself learning of Jill's illicit affair with her agent, in addition to being dictated by a group of hackers who force Nick on the darkest, and most life-threatening, ride of his life.Open Windows premiered at South By Southwest film festival eerily close to the limited theatrical release date of The Den, its most comparable, and much superior, film counterpart. Where The Den was a slowburn film, which focused on a young webcam girl conducting a social experiment who was quickly lured into the dark, deathly parts of the web, Open Windows is a needlessly complicated, scatterbrained film complete with so many plotthreads, shifts in focus, changes in point-of-view, and overcomplicated storytelling that it doesn't take long for this film to breed complete indifference.Unfortunately, being the writer and director of this project, Nacho Vigalondo, one of horror's latest contemporaries alongside people like Ti West and Adam Wingard, bears most of the blame for the shortcomings of Open Windows. His first, and ultimately most significant problem, is he doesn't keep the film focused on Nick. After about twenty minutes of keeping the attention solely on Nick, Vigalondo changes to show us the point-of-views of these nasty hackers, in addition to Jill, muddling the entire focus of the film because now we know way too much about the plot. Largely confining the point-of-view to Nick would've made the film much more of a mystery rather than a film that feels the need to inform of us of every trick of its sleeve so early on.In an attempt to juggle three distinct points-of-views, humanize all the characters and justify their actions, and continue "opening windows" on Nick's computer, Vigalondo's balancing act falls apart when you realize that there's simply too much chaos going on in the film to truly decipher and divide your attention to. On top of everything else, the entire corporate spy/hacker angle comes way out of left field for a film that, at the end of it all, is really trying to be a somewhat sleazy, yet marginally inventive, cyberthriller.The most commendable attributes of the film come in the two leading talents, who fit so snugly into their roles they could be put to sleep. Elijah Wood is perfect as the conflicted webmaster, questioning the ethics of his spying actions whilst simultaneously relishing in the thought of all the unique content and information he's getting for the website, while Sasha Grey is perfect because of the glaring personal connection. With Grey working in the porn industry, being one of the most involved and daring mainstream performers, Grey undoubtedly found herself a great deal of attention from strangers online, let alone around her. Grey's evident empathy make Jill that much more of an intriguing character, despite her being encapsulated in a film that's too messy to really show her or say anything about her character.Open Windows, in short, is a mess; a film with a very strong idea and a solid opening twenty-five minutes that rapidly descends into a muddled and, in turn, uninteresting spy thriller. Vigalondo's overall goal of wanting to make a cyberthriller about infidelity (akin to Mike Nichols' exceptional Closer, so he claims) and a film more substantial to the genre is an admirable mindset, but when a film is this confusing and scatterbrained, you ultimately wish that he would've stuck to a more linear outline and created a film that was average rather than frustrating.Starring: Elijah Wood, Sasha Grey, and Neil Maskell. Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo.
leonblackwood
Review: I wasn't a big fan of this movie. I didn't have a clue what was going on half of the time because the plot kept on changing without much explanation. When it all came together at the end I was quite surprised with the outcome but I don't think that it was well put together. The director over complicated the movie and he made it go in different directions which just became annoying after a while. Anyway, the movie is about a man whose obsessed with an actress and when he finds out that he has won a contest to have dinner with her, he really can't believe that his dream has come true. When he finds out from a mysterious caller that she has cancelled the meal because she can't be bothered to go, the mysterious man offers him exclusive access to the actress life, via cameras and hacking into her laptop and phone. After snooping into her private life, he realises that the mysterious man isn't all that he seems and he's ends up trying to save the actresses life whilst putting his own life in danger. Its an original concept but it's executed badly. Elijah Wood put in a good performance because he brought intensity throughout the whole film and he made the situation seem real. On the plus side, this movie does show how easy it is to get into people's private lives with ease but for entertainment, it could have been much better. Watchable but not that great!Round-Up: Elijah Wood has taken on some weird projects since playing Frodo in the Lord of the Rings franchise, like Grand Piano, Maniac and Revenge For Jolly, and most of his films seem to go straight to DVD. At 34, I doubt that he would be happy with the way that his career has turned out after the major blockbuster but he has got a film with Vin Diesel coming out soon, called The Last Witch Hunter, so that might bring him back in the spotlight. The moody and dark settings in this movie, worked well with the subject matter but it seemed like the director lost the plot. Some of the clever camera work was impressive and I liked the use of the different computer windows throughout the movie but it's a shame that the script was so sketchy.I recommend this movie to people who are into their thrillers about an man who obsessed with a famous actress and wins a competition to have dinner with her but he finds out that the dinner is off so he seeks revenge with the help from a mystery caller. 4/10
