You'll never leave the blinds up again...

Rating: 10/10 (21 July 2001)

They don't make movies this way anymore. Consider how deceptively simple the plot is-A photographer, confined to a wheelchair until his broken leg heals, is spying on his neighbors in an apartment complex and thinks that he is the only witness to a murder. The movie often seems simple, too-The camera shots are pretty much only what the lead character can see, meaning that you see everyone in the complex from outside their windows. Yet this movie never needs the heart-pounding airplane chase of North by Northwest to build a powerful momentum that hooks you in and never lets you go.
I must be fortunate-I saw this when it was re-released into theaters recently. Twice. I loved it so much the first time that I had to see it again. I've seen the last hour on TV twice since. Even when presented with only that last hour, I still couldn't stop watching until the ending credits rolled. Yes, they don't make movies like this anymore.
The leading players are well-chosen. You've got James Stewart as the wheelchair-bound photographer and Grace Kelly as his rich, fashionable girlfriend who is head-over-heels for him. Theirs is not the only love story-several people in the complex have their own romances to deal with, in particular, the tragic Miss Lonelyheart, who sets dinner for two every night, even though she never has company. The characters we see from a distance are surprisingly well-developed, and live such natural lives, such as a woman who lives on the top floor of the building across from the photographer. She puts her dog in a basket everyday and lowers him down to the ground so that he can play. Such simple traits are also very human.
Then there is the gripping story. You're never given any more information than our protagonist has. Stewart is forced to prove that Mrs. Anna Thorwald was murdered by her husband, Lars, and keeps trying to convince his detective friend (played by Wendall Corey) of her murder. In the meantime, he's also trying to work out his own lovelife, and often what he sees in the windows reflect his mood, particularly a speech delivered by the woman with the dog about how neighbors should treat each other(another example of Hitchcock's masterful use of subtlety).
It's these subtle details and deceptive simplicity that make this movie so fantastic. You just don't see movies like this now-everything must now be explicitly stated to the audience. Hitchcock does not play that game-he expects his audience to be intelligent enough to understand the meaning of every scene and to know what is going on without the characters explaining even the most minute details. This movie should be required viewing for everyone that loves movies.