Rear Window (1998) - A TV-Movie Review

Something very peculiar is going on at my neighbor’s house.

Rear Window is a 1998 TV-movie remake based on the film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954. After a bad car accident that leaves him paraplegic, Jason is persistent to live a normal life. However, he notices strange behavior going on at the apartment across from him.

The remake of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films immediately peaked my interested - especially with the involvement of the late Christopher Reeve. Rear Window does a nice job of modernizing the story from the original. However, does it succeed at any new boundaries?

This was Christopher Reeve’s first film after he had his accident which left him paralyzed in 1995. I am very proud of Reeve for his incredible job. Despite his handicap, he never let it stop him from the inevitable. I was intrigued by the scenes that showed him in physical therapy along with breathing on his own without a ventilator.

Reeve was outstanding as Jason embedding his real-life recovery into the film. At first, upset with the injury, Jason slowly regains a more positive perspective obtaining a new meaning about life. He was very expressive, specifically in his eyes when observing scenes happening across the street. Donning a powerful message to all audiences, Jason’s perseverance is a trait to admire.

I was excited to see Daryl Hannah’s name in the credits for this film. Recently, since I watched Splash I have become a fan of Hannah. Noticeably uncomfortable around Jason at first because of his condition, Claudia gains new meaning in her interactions with Jason. Their overall relationship could have been written a little better.

Other credits for Rear Window include Robert Forster, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Anne Twomey, Ritchie Coster, Allison Mackie, Ali Marsh, and actors who performed as neighbors across the way. I applaud the film for including significant modernizations of society norms.

I wish Allison (Marsh) could have had a bigger role. Antonio (Santiago-Hudson) has a bigger part as another nurse for Jason. Obviously, he was trying to fill in for Thelma Ritter’s famous role as the nurse in the original. With the way Allison is included in the script, she feels like an unnecessary character to the story.

One of my favorite parts about Hitchcock’s 1954 film was the effect of the camera panning to every person who lived in the neighborhood. They all had a story. Actions speak louder than words.

While Hitchcock continuously filmed their stories throughout the film, I feel like story writers forgot about this important element by the middle half in the story. Instead, writers only focusing on the murder story, ignoring essential reactions from the other characters.

I feel like the film focused a little too long with Jason’s story of recuperation. The film took its time to get into the main action, and when it did I was on the edge of my seat. At times the writing is weak and it tried too hard to be an Alfred Hitchcock film.

I am proud of Jeff Bleckner for taking on a project like this. Bleckner was trying to take a different route from the original version, creating different angles. More edits could have been made to the final script to make it stronger. His direction in the scenes that take place across the way is administered very well.

Give this film a chance. Many reviews state that it was a pointless remake to begin with. Yes, it is not the Alfred Hitchcock version, but I was impressed with how they didn’t make it a direct remake from the original. That would have been boring.