Kristen Bell Disappoints In The Woman In The House….

kristen bell
kristen bell

Kristen Bell’s show on Netflix attempts to be the Spaceballs of psychological thrillers. While the Mel Brooks movie was a classing spoof of the space movies, The Woman…The Window turns out to merely the long spacecraft at the opening credits of Space Balls that refuses to end.

The Woman…  does provide space for fun and showcases Kristen Bell’s acting talents, but the crazy headlines are indications enough that the director has gone berserk.

Kristen Bell’s movie evokes memories of The Woman In The Window (a Rear Window remake), and a dozen more similar thrillers on the lines of The Girl On The Train.

Whatever be the inspiration, this genre has not been parodied much, and once you watch this Kirsten Bell show, you realize the reason why.

Kristen Bell Doesn’t Get The Fun Part Right In The Woman…

Once you get going on the series, you realize, too late, that the only spooky thing going is the mile-long title. The gently lampooned clichés are easy to guess.

The Woman…is at no time funny. The normally funny Bell plays it straight. And then it is not serious either. It gets lost in trying to guess what it eventually is. This tonal mayhem does make it ridiculous at its better moments, and at most other times it is deeply disturbing.

The opening minutes are quite promising satirically. Anna, played by Kristen Bell is seen beating up pieces of chicken with a tenderizer, dressed in a gown.

Anna is coming apart at the seams. She downs bottles of wine pop pills like an addict hears strange noises in her attic while obsessing over the guy across the street, and his daughter. And the dialogues are just as terribly unappetizing as the dinner she makes.

We soon learn that her daughter’s death in horrifying circumstances and her marriage have been going downhill ever since. But then she turns up at her daughter’s school. And then she has her visions. Kristen Bell’s Anna sees her departed daughter and requests her for a kiss.

The series is meant to be dark and comedic. But then it asks whether it is possible to make a sincerely suspenseful psychological thriller that is both comedic and dark.