Overall good, but some unexpected yet significant flaws

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2016)

The symbolic allusions of "Rear window" and its perspectives on human frailty, relationship and gender role issues all condensing into the interestingly put conflict around (vain) voyeurism (and rudimentary self-confrontation) would be one reason to like this film. The setting is quite impressive for the time and the makers obviously had an eye for the details, so it is definitely worth looking deeper into the film during some scenes. It has got plenty of moments of really well-placed laconic humour; some things even appear ironic or satirical to me (like the aftermath of the dog-strangling), which I am not sure they are always entirely meant to be... Anyway, what actually put me a little off the film was the blandness of its plot-development and particularly the ending, which (to me) seemed so predictable, one would not even have predicted it, thus its lack off deepness and the inconsistency with the film's meta-critique on human nature what about an alternative ending, that had potentially played out there instead, as when Miss Lonely-heart could have attempted pill-overdosing suicide right in front of the 'bystanders' eyes who'd rather fantasise about a pathetic murder-story than recognising some serious problems and taking on a conflict around their social responsibility, which seems a little construed as it is like this there are also plot wholes which to me get quite significant: E.g. Who is the woman that leaves the apartment in the morning together with Thorwald and what about the inspector's reports? It's not that I think that this were necessarily important information for the viewer, but because the ending gives away all of the film's ambiguity howsoever, these sources of doubt and suspense seem absurd and have to be perceived rather like mistakes. I don't want to be too hard on the film though, the acting is done as professional as one could wish for and I like the straight-forward camera work, so my overall impression is still positive, although I don't consider this the classic that most people regard it as and in my mind it falls a little short of Hitchcocks best films. 6,5 points (make for 7)