One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Open Windows concerns an unassuming young man named Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood) wins a contest to meet Jill Godard (Sasha Grey) and enjoy a fine dinner with her. Nick has been the webmaster of a fansite dedicated to Jill, rare photos of her, gossip, and information about her forthcoming films for years, and is waiting in his hotelroom for information about the dinner when Chord (Neil Maskell), Jill's manager, calls and informs him that the contest was canceled by Jill. Nick sets before his laptop, shocked and soulcrushed at his misfortune until Chord sends Nick a private link that houses the interworkings of Jill's cellphone. Chord has hacked into her personal phone and allows Nick the ability to spy on her activity, phone calls, files, camera, and general whereabouts from hereon out. With this power comes great irresponsibility, and Nick quickly finds himself learning of Jill's illicit affair with her agent, in addition to being dictated by a group of hackers who force Nick on the darkest, and most life-threatening, ride of his life.Open Windows premiered at South By Southwest film festival eerily close to the limited theatrical release date of The Den, its most comparable, and much superior, film counterpart. Where The Den was a slowburn film, which focused on a young webcam girl conducting a social experiment who was quickly lured into the dark, deathly parts of the web, Open Windows is a needlessly complicated, scatterbrained film complete with so many plotthreads, shifts in focus, changes in point-of-view, and overcomplicated storytelling that it doesn't take long for this film to breed complete indifference.Unfortunately, being the writer and director of this project, Nacho Vigalondo, one of horror's latest contemporaries alongside people like Ti West and Adam Wingard, bears most of the blame for the shortcomings of Open Windows. His first, and ultimately most significant problem, is he doesn't keep the film focused on Nick. After about twenty minutes of keeping the attention solely on Nick, Vigalondo changes to show us the point-of-views of these nasty hackers, in addition to Jill, muddling the entire focus of the film because now we know way too much about the plot. Largely confining the point-of-view to Nick would've made the film much more of a mystery rather than a film that feels the need to inform of us of every trick of its sleeve so early on.In an attempt to juggle three distinct points-of-views, humanize all the characters and justify their actions, and continue "opening windows" on Nick's computer, Vigalondo's balancing act falls apart when you realize that there's simply too much chaos going on in the film to truly decipher and divide your attention to. On top of everything else, the entire corporate spy/hacker angle comes way out of left field for a film that, at the end of it all, is really trying to be a somewhat sleazy, yet marginally inventive, cyberthriller.The most commendable attributes of the film come in the two leading talents, who fit so snugly into their roles they could be put to sleep. Elijah Wood is perfect as the conflicted webmaster, questioning the ethics of his spying actions whilst simultaneously relishing in the thought of all the unique content and information he's getting for the website, while Sasha Grey is perfect because of the glaring personal connection. With Grey working in the porn industry, being one of the most involved and daring mainstream performers, Grey undoubtedly found herself a great deal of attention from strangers online, let alone around her. Grey's evident empathy make Jill that much more of an intriguing character, despite her being encapsulated in a film that's too messy to really show her or say anything about her character.Open Windows, in short, is a mess; a film with a very strong idea and a solid opening twenty-five minutes that rapidly descends into a muddled and, in turn, uninteresting spy thriller. Vigalondo's overall goal of wanting to make a cyberthriller about infidelity (akin to Mike Nichols' exceptional Closer, so he claims) and a film more substantial to the genre is an admirable mindset, but when a film is this confusing and scatterbrained, you ultimately wish that he would've stuck to a more linear outline and created a film that was average rather than frustrating.Starring: Elijah Wood, Sasha Grey, and Neil Maskell. Directed by: Nacho Vigalondo.

First off... ignore all these pious, jaded Numbnut reviewers who arrogantly diss this film ('Found Footage'...? Really? WHERE the hell do they dig up these 'people'?) Sorry... just my honest reaction after seeing several of these shallow, illiterate reviews...Going into this film, I really did NOT expect to like it very much. Actually, I kind of put off seeing it, fully expecting it to be a very shallow and 'Gimmicky' film (a word that another reviewer apparently felt necessary to repeat 3 times in his Summary) So, it was with genuine reluctance that I watched this movie. Surprisingly, within the first few moments, the film had already grabbed me and seriously snagged my full attention (I'm watching this thinking, 'What the HELL...???) After reading about the premise, I was expecting that this probably would be a boring movie where we would just be looking at a some guy watching his computer screen the whole time. BUT... when I started to understand why Elijah Wood was there and what was happening to him, before I even fully realized it, the film had literally seized me by the nuts in an iron grip, and would NOT let go until it has slapped me around and fully had it's way with me.That is just about the most concise way I can sum up my impression of the movie...What makes it work, of course, is the truly clever thought that the director has put into just exactly HOW to portray this movie in a way that will involve the audience. My guess would be that there must be a MILLION ways that he could have screwed this up and ruined it, but I can only surmise that he must have been up for it, because I can honestly say that it not only held me captive for the entire length of the film, but REALLY had me wondering at every turn just what the HELL was going to happen next.Once you get used to the format and style of the movie, really the ONLY thing that could possibly keep your interest is the story itself. And WHAT a story indeed...! Let me just say one thing. If you DO find the movie interesting, make bloody SURE that you watch it to the very end because there are some very nice twists and turns that really add to the effectiveness of the film. One thing I will say, without giving too much away, is that when the French guys first appeared, I thought that it was frigg'n hilarious. 'Are you Nevada...?'My humble suggestion is, please DON'T allow these know-it-all, pompous, Dickweed reviewers put you off by their arrogantly dismissive Summaries of 'Gimmicky' or 'Poorly written'... NOTHING could possibly be farther from the truth in my lowly and wretched opinion. YES, you might say that the format is very unique and uses a method that a very SHALLOW person could quickly leap to saying is a 'Gimmick' if they wanted to appear to be the 'Oh-So-Cool' reviewer. But, 'Gimmicks' are what William Castle used in his films, and they had NOTHING at all to do with the story and were just Cheeeeezy stunts to shock the audience. Here, the director chose a format that I personally think would be a HUGE challenge to do correctly in order for it to come across in just the right way to keep the audience's attention and to tell the story effectively. One Lame@ss reviewer actually states in his Summary something like 'Brilliant and inventive, ruined by Science Fiction' WHAT...?!! That's like saying in the original Star Trek, that just because some of the technology was pushing it a bit with Proton beams, Graviton fields, and of course the Transporters, that that made it total $hit...? Uh huh, right... How about having a little frigg'n IMAGINATION, Dumb@ss...?Sorry... just REALLY chaps my Willie...So, I would say that if you really don't like computers or computer-related stories / movies, then you might want to give this one a pass. BUT... if you have a really naive and sensitive imagination like I do and IF you can easily suspend disbelief (mainly with the technology used in the film) and if you like Computer / Cyber-centric Thrillers at all, then I think that there is a good chance that you will really enjoy this very clever and entertaining film...

'Open Windows' was not a bad concept. The 'found footage' genre is still alive and kicking (despite what some may say) and little innovations like this are most welcome. But when the script you're doing it with is as poor as this one was, you're doomed before filming even starts. The dialogue is unbearably bad, the plot is far too convoluted for its own good and not one character has an iota of likability about them. Not a good recipe for a successful film.There was potential here somewhere. The plot actually had something going for it I'm pretty sure but the execution simply wasn't there. I hadn't even realised it until just now (I didn't even know he was behind 'Open Windows') but I was actually criticising writer/director Nacho Vigalondo for the exact same thing the other day for his segment 'Parallel Monsters' in 'V/H/S: Viral' - a whole lot of potential with no execution. The man obviously has a creative brain but is lacking the filmmaking skills. A real shame.The acting was pretty feeble. Elijah Wood is incredibly flat and makes the already cringe-worthy dialogue even worse. Pornographic actress Sasha Grey would probably have to be called the stand out performer in this. Don't get me wrong she was nothing great, the rest of the cast was just that bad. She held her own though and I'll be interested to see what she comes out with next. Altogether the film is a complete misfire. The amount of plot holes will give you a headache and for that matter so will every other aspect of the film. Give it a miss.

This film is about a blogger who won a contest to meet a famous actress. He is then dragged into a dangerous game of spying, lies, blackmailing and kidnapping. "Open Windows" is a low budget thriller, but it is kept me interested thoroughly from the start to the end. Poor Nick gets blackmailed into a series of crime, and there seems no way to clear his name unless he complies with the mastermind to commit more crime. It's a thrilling and suspenseful plot, until the very end when twists after twists make the plot confusing. At least, I want to think more about what happened and make some sense out of the situation, which means I like the film enough. I enjoyed watching it.