The Bedroom Window Reviews

Though muddled moments dilute its potency, THE BEDROOM WINDOW has much to recommend it: Steve Guttenberg playing against type, a heavy dose of unexpected plot twisting, and the imposing shadow of Alfred Hitchcock. Terry Lambert (Guttenberg) is an architect whose life is turned upside when Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert), his sensuous French lover, witnesses the attempted rape of barmaid Denise (Elizabeth McGovern). It seems that Sylvia is the wife of Lambert's powerful boss and the crime is witnessed from Lambert's bedroom window. In an attempt to protect Sylvia's reputation, Lambert reports the attack as if he were the witness and becomes a suspect himself. Since Sylvia, his only alibi, refuses to come forth, Lambert enlists the aid of Denise to lure the real killer out of hiding. Writer-director Curtis Hanson is to be credited for procuring a clever story and offering nail-biting action sequences that build solid suspense. Guttenberg's boyish appearance initially seems wrong for his increasingly forceful role here, but it is exactly that quality that proves to make his unjudicious actions believable. The marvelous French actress Huppert is a standout as the cool, European beauty. Hanson draws pleasingly upon Hitchcock masterpieces--the premise of REAR WINDOW, situations sliced from SABOTEUR and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and the stabbing scene from NORTH BY NORTHWEST--but all the while THE BEDROOM WINDOW retains its own unique, if offbeat, identity.