Hopeful Open Window Brings Trauma Home

That the Boston Film Festival would run Open Window on the five-year anniversary of 9/11 is only appropriate. Not a political film, it speaks to how we experience and deal with trauma and grief in a way reminiscent of 21 Grams. This one, however, is much easier to follow and not near as draining. Yes, it’s about trauma, but it’s also about hope, and that is primarily what writer/director Mia Goldman emphasizes in a taut 97 minutes.

Izzy (Robin Tunney) and Peter (Joel Edgerton) are happy together. Everything appears to be moving in the right direction when he proposes to her; Izzy is expanding her portfolio while working as a photographer’s assistant, and Peter is up for tenure. But when an unknown assailant creeps through Izzy’s open window and rapes her, nothing is quite ever the same again.

It’s tempting to think of Open Window’s subject as rape, a virtual taboo, even for Hollywood. That would be to miss the film’s point. Goldman does explore the dynamics of a recovering rape victim, but not to the exclusion of what happens to her fiancé, their parents, their friends or how recovery changes both of them. Tragic events have ripple effects in terms affecting more lives than they directly touch and having sustaining influence over long periods of time. Open Window gets that across by being true to the story and by being undeniably applicable to how people deal with almost any trauma.

Izzy wants to forget about it while Peter wants to find the perpetrator. There is some clash between the desire for ignorant bliss versus the need for catharsis. But the fact is neither is a possibility making things even more frustrating for the couple. The new wound opens old ones within both sets of parents, including Arlene (Cybill Shepherd), Izzy’s overbearing and annoying mother. “I never ever thought that anything like this would ever happen to me!” she shouts, ignoring that the trauma happened to her daughter and not herself.

The movie showcases strong performances all around (including Elliott Gould as Izzy’s father), but Tunney and Edgerton are both in a class of their own. The portrayal of direct (her) and indirect (him) victimization is insightfully written and performed, as is the process of the couple learning to deal with their pain. Emotionally evocative but in the end hopeful, Open Window is itself a kind of catharsis for the viewer. Izzy and Peter may not be intentionally stand-ins for Everyman and Everywoman. They just work out that way.

Note: Robin Tunney was co-recipient of the Boston Film Festival's Best Actress Award.

Film Rating: êêê ½  (out of 4)