Steve Guttenberg. Just mentioning that name is controversial. So I’ll do it again:
STEVE GUTTENBERG.
I can’t say he’s some kind of acting-genius, but is he really SO bad? I think he’s pretty decent in The Boys From Brazil and the first Police Academy isn’t bad. It’s just destroyed by all those billions of sequels no one asked for. So fuck that and take a look at Curtis Hanson’s The Bedroom Window, a forgotten thriller from the glorious eighties where Guttenberg obviously tried to break free from the Police Academy trap.
There’s something wtih eighties (...and nineties) thrillers that attracts me a lot. The quality of the scripts was often excellent, even when it was cheap low budget productions. There was more focus on good acting, complex characters and twists than spectacular action, and more than often they felt like American giallos. The Bedroom Window is first of all a top notch thriller standing on it’s own legs, but it owes a lot to Alfred Hitchcock with it’s simple yet brilliant set-up…
Guttenberg is playing Terry Lambert, a quite successful man in the middle of his career who’s having an affair with a married woman, Sylvia (Isabelle Huppert). One night she’s looking out the window of his bedroom window (get it, that’s the title also!!! ;)) and witnesses a pale man attacking a woman. He sees her and escapes, leaving the woman bruised but alive. Sylvia don’t want to be revealed having an affair and Terry takes on the role of the witness when he hears a murder happen 30 minutes later - probably by the same man - even if he never saw the initial attack, just to protect Sylvia! During the investigation he gets to know the woman, Denise (Elizabeth McGovern) and slowly falls in love with her. But soon everything becomes a disaster and the supposed killer goes free...and now Terry is accused of being the killer!
Yeah, you can see for yourself, this IS a very Hitchcockian thriller, complete with the wrongfully accused man conducting his own investigation, starring a charming and irresponsible guy who needs to keep his dick in his pants. I’m not sure you can label this as an “erotic thriller” (my fave genre, as you might know), but it’s damn close and you even get a chance to see Guttenberg’s ass. That’s weird. I mean, it’s friggin’ Steve Guttenberg! I actually like him a lot in this film, he skillfully keeps a balance between a slightly humoristic approach and one where he realizes he’s digging his own grave with all the lies. There’s a fantastic courtroom scene where a defense lawyer, played by the always brilliant Wallace Shawn, completely rips Gutttenberg apart by trashing his statement. Excellent writing.
But the main thing is the budding love story between Guttenberg and McGovern, which I think was one reason Guttenberg took the part. Their chemistry is wonderful and McGovern is great as usual, doing a fine and complex part - throwing in some nice comedy also. The killer, played by Brad Greenquist (who looks like disturbingly freaky Tintin and also is extremly sex IMHO), is another highlight. He totally owns every scene he’s in.
The Bedroom Window might suffer from a boring title, but it’s one of the best eighties thrillers I’ve seen so far. It’s classy, well-acted, packed with tension and written intelligence and passion. A must see for those who need to go back in time for an old-school thriller.
Recent Comments