Overrated Suspense Flick

Rating: 5/10 (20 February 2016)

Rear Window is certainly well shot and the suspense is there. However, the mystery isn't. It's very predictable. That's fine, but unfortunately Stewart isn't a very convincing actor. Coming off of "Vertigo", I was thankful he was portraying a photographer (Jeff). Well, this is supposed to be a "tough" photographer who wears boots, treks through jungles and eats grizzly tribal foods in foreign lands. He doesn't look or act "tough" in any way.
There was a scene near the beginning of the film where Jeff was supposed to doze off, not being able to stay awake and watch out his window any longer. It looked more like he was having a stroke than falling asleep. If a Hollywood actor can't convincingly fall asleep, that's a problem.
The film is filled with just downright unrealistic events.
To go through some of the more extreme examples: At the end of the film after Jeff falls from the window, the policeman pokes his head out to report a full confession with multiple details. This was 10 seconds after they pulled the killer off of Jeff. All that in 10 seconds? I don't think so.
Prior to that, Jeff was hanging only by his fingers/hands on the ledge. He has a big, strong looking man pushing on him but somehow his fingers have superman strength (yes, that is a 1998 Rear Window remake jab at Christopher Reeve). Of course, it's only when the police stop the killer that he falls.
The scene prior to this with his camera flashes was the dumbest killer/victim scene I've ever seen. Basically, the killer is standing at one end of the room and Jeff in his wheelchair at the other. He puts a bulb in his flash and sets it off, temporarily blinding the killer. The camera focuses close in on him rubbing his eyes, stopping him in his tracks then recovering. He takes one more step, and this whole process repeats about 4 or 5 times until he finally reaches him. Of course, it's at this point that the police coincidentally show up and he's able to scream for help. It's comical.
Earlier in the film, Jeff's girlfriend is being strangled/attacked. He and his nurse just watch. He squirms like a pansy and says "Oh gee, what do we do?" Oh gee, golly whiz, what do you do? Well for one, if someone's life is in serious danger, you don't do nothing. You could scream. Yes, screaming out and saying "HEY A**HOLE, I CALLED THE POLICE! WE SEE YOU ATTACKING HER!" would actually be a rational thing to do. But, the police magically show up literally 15 seconds after he calls them and save the day.
The problem is all of these unrealistic scenes were unnecessary. They could have easily been replaced with realistic alternatives. Great movies don't require the viewer to throw rationality out the window (no pun intended). For that reason, I feel the film is quite overrated. I also think the Freud analysis of the movie some people have like "it's a take on society's obsession with voyeurism" is complete nonsense. No, it's actually not. It's actually a crime-suspense film about a nosy, bored neighbor stumbling upon a murder - not a message to viewers about society's inner perversions.