The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window is a 2021 American psychological thriller film directed by Joe Wright from a screenplay by Tracy Letts, based on the bestselling 2018 novel of the same name by author A. J. Finn. The film follows an agoraphobic woman (Amy Adams) who begins to spy on her new neighbors (Gary Oldman, Fred Hechinger, and Julianne Moore) and is witness to a crime in their apartment. Anthony Mackie, Wyatt Russell, Brian Tyree Henry, and Jennifer Jason Leigh also star. The film was produced by Fox 2000 Pictures and was originally scheduled to be theatrically released by 20th Century Fox in October 2019, but was delayed to May 2020 and subsequently sold to Netflix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on May 14, 2021, and ranked among the best performing Netflix titles of 2021. Critics' reviews were mixed and the all-star cast earned praise. The film and the source novel were among the inspirations for the 2022 Netflix dark comedy series The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, which spoofed tropes from the psychological thriller genre. Plot Child psychologist Anna Fox lives alone in a Manhattan brownstone after separating from her husband Edward; he lives away with their daughter Olivia, but she talks to them on a daily basis. Anna suffers from agoraphobia and her housebound state leads her to observe all of her neighbors from a second-storey window, including the Russell family who recently moved in across the street. She also takes a large number of medications and drinks heavily. One evening, Jane Russell visits Anna and they befriend one another. She also meets Ethan, Jane's teenage son, who suggests his father Alistair is abusive. One night, Anna witnesses Jane being stabbed to death in the living room. She contacts the police but they do not believe her, claiming everyone in the family is fine. Alistair arrives along with "Jane" who, to the shock of Anna, is a different woman from the one she met. She begins spying on the Russell family.