Movie review
May 13, 2021 · 100 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Woman in the Window.
Woke representation / casting
Casting uses natural diversity for a Manhattan setting (Anthony Mackie and Brian Tyree Henry in supporting roles as husband and detective); no story-inconsistent swaps, signaling, or audience-visible DEI emphasis.
Woke political dialogue
No activist, identity-focused, or social-justice dialogue appears in the film.
Identity-driven story themes
Narrative stays on personal trauma, grief, agoraphobia, and psychological unreliability; no race, gender, sexuality, or identity-politics framing.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Story offers no modern activist critique of patriarchy, institutions, toxic masculinity, or Western norms; abusive husband and cover-up remain personal thriller elements.
Review
The Woman in the Window is a 2021 psychological thriller directed by Joe Wright from a script by Tracy Letts. It adapts A.J. Finn’s 2018 novel and follows an agoraphobic child psychologist in New York who spies on neighbors and believes she witnessed a murder, only for her own trauma, medication, and alcohol use to raise doubts about what is real. The story centers on personal grief, mental health struggles, and classic unreliable-narrator twists with no visible social justice messaging, identity politics, or institutional critique.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant (original story with no established canon or source-material alterations tied to ideology).
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No documented right-leaning or anti-woke complaints that the film pushes identity politics or DEI messaging.
Creator track record context
Director Joe Wright has voiced mild progressive views on gender and framed fascism with toxic-masculinity language; writer Tracy Letts writes politically themed plays that touch social issues; neither applies strong identity-driven or activist emphasis to this thriller.
Production
