It's Hitchcock. What else do you need to know?

Rating: 8/10 (29 February 2004)

Rear Window, one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous and revered pictures, along with others such as Psycho and Vertigo. Although the film starts out with a rather slow and meandering pace, it ultimately has the viewer intensely interested.
Its plot is simple - it's the kind of movie that could be explained to someone in a sentence or two, probably eliciting a "Hey, that does sound like a good idea for a movieÂ…" response. Jimmy Stewart plays L B. Jeffries, a photographer with a broken leg. Normally a man of action, looking for adventure, Jeffries is now relegated to sitting in front of his window in his wheelchair for hours at a time. With little else to entertain him aside from the ever-beautiful Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) and his generously advice-giving nurse Stella(Thelma Ritter), Jeffries looks out the window. And watches. And watchesÂ…
The cast, while good, is not really the memorable part of this movie. Jimmy Stewart is, well, Jimmy Stewart. Grace Kelly is a great supporting actress that performs excellently with what could have been a bland role. And Thelma Ritter provides the comic relief, convincing as lovably quirky with a straightforward and gruesome sense of logic.
The film succeeds largely because of it's theme. It taps into the universal human fear of the unexpected return glance - we spend the entire film praying that it wasn't Jimmy Stewart any given stranger was looking at. This works because the entire film is centered on the lead character's point of view. For almost the entire movie, we never see a camera angle outside of a single apartment - a feat that gives the characters and the audience a feeling of safety that makes the climax all the more suspenseful. This could not have been accomplished without the film's brilliant cinematography. The movie effortlessly pulls off extremely complicated panoramas, letting us see the entire neighborhood, with all its quirky details, before revealing that this is all seen from the perspective of a single apartment.
The suspense that results is excellent. Hitchcock has the ability to make a silent phone call more terrifying than anyone else could make the deepest circle of Hell - he seems to possess a brilliant sense of timing and of the audience's reactions. While it is more of a mystery than a thriller or horror, Hitchcock still manages to manipulate the audience's breath.
While the movie was amazing technically and thematically, some might find it to be too slow-paced and unfocused. For example, I was not particularly interested in the romance that was seemingly inserted into the movie to fulfill some Hollywood checklist. And without going into specifics, there were a few places in the movie that seemed rather ridiculous. Still, Hitchcock's masterful control of suspense and its overall intelligence ultimately outweigh any complaints.