Rear Window (1998)

After an auto accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, an architect (Christopher Reeve) applies his trade from his loft flat but he begins observing his neighbors across the way from his wheelchair. When a sculptor (Ritchie Coster) and his wife (Allison Mackie) have a violent argument and she suddenly disappears, the architect suspects the sculptor has done away with his wife. Based on the short story IT HAD TO BE MURDER (previously filmed in 1954 by Alfred Hitchcock) by Cornell Woolrich and directed by Jeff Bleckner. If the 1954 classic Hitchcock had never existed, this would be a better than average TV movie but the Hitchcock film does exist so it's almost impossible not to compare the two films. This production eliminates all of the stories involving the neighbors which gave texture to the 1954 film and instead focuses just on the wife killer. There's also an absence of humor here. I never thought I'd say it but Thelma Ritter's wisecracking nurse is sorely missed and she's replaced by a Jamaican male nurse (Ruben Santiago Hudson) who's not as amusing. The film's strength is Christopher Reeve, here returning to acting for the first time since the riding accident that left him permanently paralyzed. His performance, not surprisingly, has the ring of authenticity and there's genuine anxiety as he's terrorized by the villain. David Shire's score keeps the suspense quotient high. With Daryl Hannah (in the Grace Kelly role), Robert Forster (in the Wendell Corey part) and Anne Twomey.