Lifetime
After weeks of promotion, Lifetime’s The Man in the Window has finally premiered, and despite a writer and director with spotty success, they finally hit one out of the park with a gripping story and an A-list cast, which really made all the difference.
The Man in the Window — a title which really means nothing since the titular man is only seen looking out of a window once, although it’s suggested he’s peering into his neighbor’s window — stars Teri Polo as Sarah, wife and mother, who at the beginning of the movie is driving home from a night out with her husband, only to have the drive end tragically in an accident that took his life after being run off the road. A year later, Sarah’s daughter Julia is home from college for the summer, trying to avoid ‘neighborhood watch’ lady Sylvia, while a new neighbor moves in across the street. Julia thinks it’s time for her mom to dip her toe in the dating pool again, and there just so happens to be a speed dating event coming up. Sarah finally agrees to go, but the dating pool seems to be really shallow until she meets Jack, who tells her he recently moved to town on the urging of his sister as she is the only family he has left, and because of their age difference he was more of a father to her than a brother. He also happens to have just moved into the house directly across the street from Sarah. What are the odds?! Jack’s the one person Sarah actually felt a connection to, and the next day they both learn they are a match. Before Sarah can decide if she’s going to call Jack, he calls her and invites her to dinner at his place, which she accepts. Julia also got her own match at the speed dating event, so she’ll be meeting up with Neil at the same time.
Lifetime
When they got home from the speed dating, Sarah’s friend Luna was in the house waiting, startling Sarah and Julia, but she has a key so she let herself in. She’s obviously very good friends with Sarah and has been a shoulder for her to cry on following Richard’s death, and it’s not until a bit later that we learn Luna had a longtime working relationship with Richard as a producer for his music, so they both have suffered a major loss. When Sarah was at Jack’s house, she noticed a box labeled ‘surveillance equipment’ and she assured him the neighborhood was safe. Yet it’s not long before Sylvia ends up on the wrong end of the Black Hoodie killer’s hands, strangled to death on the balcony of her home, the killer taking her trademark sun hat as a trophy perhaps. While waiting for Julia to come home from her date, and stressed that it’s very late, Sarah sees the police lights outside and she finds Jack, who tells her Sylvia has been strangled to death. Julia comes home and hears the news, but Sarah and Jack agree to keep their scheduled date a few days later. While looking for his bathroom, Sarah spots Sylvia’s sun hat on top of some boxes and goes into panic mode, finding an excuse to go home. Doing some digging on Jack — after Julia told her she did a deep dive on Neil before their first date — Sarah learns that Jack’s wife was murdered … just like Sylvia. Neil had been at the house with Julia, and when he leaves he sees Jack watching him ominously from a second floor window. (Again, the only time we see Jack in a window.) Sarah is compelled to try to find the hat again so she can alert the police, and she happens to have a spare key from the previous neighbors so she lets herself in. Except the hat is gone, and she apparently forgot what a security nerd Jack is because he’s already called the police about an intruder. She has no choice but to reveal herself and then admit to the police why she was there, baffling Jack with her accusations, claiming he never saw the hat, and giving the police permission to look. Their relationship turns a bit rocky, and Luna thinks Sarah is being a bit overly-dramatic, perhaps because of reports of another recent hit-and-run that has sent her into an emotional tailspin, but Luna also feels that Sarah may be on to something. During another date with Neil at the house, he sees Jack pulling into his garage and notices another car parked there as well, one that seems to match the description of the one involved in the hit-and-run. He convinces Julia to go with him to break into the garage, and they find that Jack has a darkroom there, and the red car also has damage consistent with the hit-and-run. But Jack enters the garage, and Julia flees when he goes back into the house. Neil tries to follow but he is attacked from behind. Julia becomes worried when he doesn’t come back to the house, and when she texts him he replies that he had to go out in the other direction. Yet he still never comes back to the house, and the next day none of her texts to him are being received. Sarah decides the only way she can get to the bottom of things is to pretend to visit Jack for an apology, which seems sincere at first (and she really needs to apologize for putting a tracker on his car, which he easily discovered) but reveals she has an ulterior motive for being there and then she makes several shocking and horrifying discoveries that puts everything Sarah knows and has known into a complete tailspin. But will she be able to get out of this alive?
Lifetime
I can’t say too much about the plot of The Man in the Window because there are some major surprises that are best left for you to experience yourself. I will say I did actually figure out the mystery based on a conversation Jack had with Sarah, but I didn’t figure it out quite in the same way that it played out in the story, leaving me genuinely shocked and pleasantly surprised by the big reveal because I never saw it coming. Credit that to writers Amy Irons and Richard Switzer, who have crafted a taut thriller with a really good mystery aspect that keeps you guessing. Switzer has also directed the film excellently, never allowing any of the actors to play their roles any way other than just as normal human beings in extraordinary circumstances. No one gives that typical ‘I did it’ performance that the audience can see but the characters can’t, and that makes this movie stand out from all the others from Irons and Switzer that have ranged from okay to unwatchable. This is arguably their best movie to date. Not only is Switzer’s direction at the highest level, but his production is also cinema quality, from the outstanding lighting design to the nerve-wracking music. This could easily have been a theatrical film, with a better title, and an A-list movie star cast. It’s really that good.
But that’s not to say this cast is anything but top-notch. Teri Polo is terrific (and speaking of theatrical, she totally channels Meryl Streep in her performance) as Sarah. She is a woman living with grief, a mother who adores her daughter, cherishes the friendship with Luna, and sees perhaps a light at the end of her tunnel of sadness and solitude in Jack. She can be quite humorous in how she interacts with Julia (and Sylvia), tossing off witty asides, but also bringing a nervous energy to Sarah at times. Just at the moment I yelled at the TV for her to not do any Jessica Fletcher stuff, she immediately did just that when she let herself into Jack’s house, but in her performance she made her actions seem reasonable, while trying to not tip over into hysterics as no one would believe what she had seen. Polo gives Sarah a nice motherly relationship with Julia, even though she tries to protect her from the world, and she is able to have sensible, adult conversations with Luna. In her final scene as the situation turns very dire, she really makes Sarah appear to be scared for her life and then … she flips the script with a really cold and matter-of-fact revelation of her own. From start to finish, Polo gives a masterful performance.
Lifetime
Dylan Walsh is also terrific as Jack. As he is, of course, the suspect in not only Sylvia’s death, but that of his wife and maybe even both hit-and-runs, including the one that killed Sarah’s husband, Walsh has to give Jack a little sketchiness, a little ambiguity as to his motives, such as why did a single man buy such a gigantic house for himself? He always seems sincere with Sarah, but there is always a little something that makes him seem like he’s hiding something. Perhaps it’s just the uncertainty of moving into a new city, new neighborhood, and meeting new people. Walsh could just be showing Jack’s social awkwardness. But then again, why did we need that shot of him glaring out the window at Neil? That is really the one false note in the movie. Was it to simply justify the title? Either way, Walsh makes Jack a personable guy but also one that it could take a really long time to warm up to. Jamie-Lynn Sigler also gives a great performance as Luna, a real rock for Sarah, always ready to take her side even if she believes current events are causing her to spiral. She also plays into the climax in a surprising way, really getting to show two sides to her character.
Jonetta Kaiser is also very good as Julia. She has great chemistry with Polo, giving them a real mother-daughter vibe. She also gets to show Julia’s concern for Sarah, and her sadness over her father’s death when Neil finds the music room. Deborah Rennard gets to have a few fun moments as Sylvia, and we actually feel sadness when she’s murdered, leaving us to wonder why Sarah, Julia, Luna, and then Jack do all they can to avoid her. Even Luna remarks after her death that maybe crime in the neighborhood was nonexistent because of her neighborhood watch. Bryan Arion also has some nice, brief scenes as Neil, making him seem like an upstanding guy, revealing a sketchy side when he tells Julia he knows how to break into Jack’s garage easily. Everyone in the movie is just excellent.
Lifetime
I wasn’t sure what to expect from The Man in the Window because of the title, but it turned out to be an extremely pleasant surprise with a cinematic vibe and a cast that completely elevated it above the typical Lifetime TV movie fare. This is definitely one to put on your ‘to watch’ list. I also can’t forget to mention the movie’s fake internet search engine, Querioo, which you can actually find online by doing a search for ‘fake search engine for movies’!
The Man in the Window has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.