‘There’s nothing wrong with my eyes…’
Steve Guttenberg isn’t known for his meaty psychological thrillers. If we’re all being honest with ourselves, he’s mostly remembered for playing Mahoney in the Police Academy franchise. And yet, in 1987 he teamed up with future L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson in this Rear Window inspired pulpy thriller. And if you’re into that kind of thing, there is plenty here to enjoy…
Sylvia Wentworth (Isabelle Huppert) and Terry Lambert (Guttenberg) witness an assault but as they were indulging in an affair, they can’t report it. In the end, despite the fact that it was Sylvia looking out of the eponymous window, they decide to send Terry to court to testify using second-hand information. This falls apart because the lawyer for the defence is Wallace Shawn and everyone knows that only the Dread Pirate Roberts can outsmart Wallace Shawn (if you haven’t seen The Princess Bride, rest assured, this is a solid reference) and so it is back to the drawing board. Eventually, Terry turns to the assaulted woman (Elizabeth McGovern) in order to try and entrap the attacker.
Obviously, Hanson would go on to bigger and better things and while The Bedroom Window often feels like a made-for-TV movie, it does have a low-budget charm that suits Hanson’s gritty directorial style. He coaxes a genuinely excellent performance out of Guttenberg who carries the film as a protagonist who is both hapless but intensely likeable. Huppert and particularly McGovern provide the foil for Guttenberg and the finished product is a thriller that is sometimes trashy, sometimes predictable, but always entertaining, particularly after the first half hour (which is a little slow).
The Bedroom Window has left zero cultural footprint, indeed, I only watched it because it featured on the With Gourley and Rust podcast, but if you have a penchant for ’80s and ’90s thrillers as I do, you will find solace in Hanson’s slice of pulp fiction.