What would you do if someone empowers you to do anything to your favourite celebrity? Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood) had to ponder this question when he was given an opportunity to meet Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey) in flesh. He operated a blog dedicated to superstar Jill Goddard. His feelings, were however, run over by a giant truck when he found out that she had cancelled her dinner date with him.
The entire movie is actually a point of view from Nick’s laptop. Windows upon windows give different perspectives to any situation he faces. His laptop becomes a honeypot for apparently numero uno hacker named Chord (Neil Maskell) and a team of three French hackers.
Elijah Wood brilliantly plays the role of a nerdy hacker who falls into the trap set by Chord. At times one would feel that he is very gullible to have easily fallen in the trap, but towards the end, as all pieces fall in place, the sub-plot (kind of similar to Saw) is revealed and we understand why he does what he does.
Sasha Grey hasn’t done a bad job either but people may not be able to connect to her character because her character didn’t develop much during the movie. She ended up becoming a damsel in distress.
We don’t see much of Neil Maskell (Chord) in the movie but his strong British accent and voice gives great depth to his character.
The screenplay is fast and there are certain gripping and thrilling moments in the movie specially when the protagonist is in vulnerable situations. The movie has a bit of sci-fi elements in it where advance technology is shown to give a different dimension to the movie.
The final twist in the movie and the video re-generation parts were completely unnecessary and the movie could’ve ended with a better note.
In short, Open Windows is an interesting work by Nacho Vigalondo who has written as well as directed the movie.
Some people would like to watch the movie twice to understand the delayed video sequences and to experience the twists and turns the movie brings.
Rating: 3 out of 5