Off-kilter ethics.

Rating: 10/10 (21 September 2007)

The movie examines ethics from a unique perspective: if you are incapacitated in a wheel chair at the rear window of your apartment idly following your neighbors minding their own business, are you committing an invasion of privacy? Jimmy Stewart's wheelchair-bound character sits at his window with a magnificent view sharing in the happiness and the disappointments of his neighbours: there is a woman past her prime looking for love, a middle-aged couple camping out on the balcony, a salesman and his ailing wife with the latter suddenly disappearing, a scantily clad beautiful dancer practicing her moves, a newly-married couple scarcely able to keep their hands off each other, a musician struggling, all in the privacy of their own homes and unaware that they are being watched by someone and that is the delight of the movie. Jeff gets carried away with the little things that make up everyone's lives until he gets wake-up calls as to the ethics of the situation by his nurse and his beautiful girlfriend. The nurse's brutal cracks are a major change of pace. Grace Kelly's character provides great chemistry with Jimmy Stewart's as the two argue about their world's-apart professional lives ever allowing them to get married. The movie takes on an elegant look and feel as Grace Kelly enters. She makes her first appearance in the movie bending down to kiss Jeff against a stunning sunset and then she subsequently progressively illuminates the room by switching on the lights as she refreshes Jeff's memory. It is no surprise that Grace Kelly's glamour on its own gives the movie a gleaming finish. Her verbal waltzes with Jeff are intense. The three team up to solve a murder mystery. However it is Jeff's naughty pastime and his romantic exchanges with Grace Kelly's character and his philosophical exchanges with the nurse that make the movie stand up to viewing again and again.