The Woman in the window | Ending Explained | Movie Spoiler | Movie Recap
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At the beginning of the film, we see Dr. Anna Fox in New York. She was suffering from agoraphobia. Here agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder. In this condition people do not feel at open places. When such people go outside, in open places, buses, trains, shopping malls or, in a severe case, just outside the house, then they start having panic attacks. Their BP starts to rise, their heart rate increases, there is also difficulty in breathing. Often such a condition arises due to some traumatic event. Such people always seem to stay in the house. Here Anna herself was a child psychiatrist, she was separated from her husband and her daughter was living with her father.
In the beginning, we see Anna talking to her daughter over the phone. Anna's house was a big three-floored building where she lived alone with her cat. She rented out the basement where a single man named David was living. Anna had not left this house for the last nine to ten months, her psychiatrist Dr. Landy was worried about her deteriorating condition. He had given Anna the task of observing the neighbors and taking note of their routine. Now one morning a new family, the Russell's, arrived at Anna's neighborhood house. They were from Boston. A few days after their arrival, a 15-year-old boy named Ethan comes to Anna's house. First, she tried to shoo him away, but he had a welcome gift. Hence, she hesitantly welcomes him.
Anna calls him in and gives him her introduction. She asks about his mom and dad. Ethan was a little surprised about Anna's profession as he couldn't get the need for a mind doctor for kids. What problems could they have? Anna explains that kids have a lot of problems now days like depression, fear, anxiety, pressure of competition and, most importantly, addiction. Here Ethan soon became friendly with Anna, and it seemed he himself needed therapy. It looked as if he was afraid of his dad who might be abusing him physically. Anna observes this and promises him to do everything possible to help him. Due to her condition, she couldn't move out of the house, but inside she was completely normal.
Now the next day was Halloween. David talks about bringing some candy in the house as at night the kids from the neighborhood were coming for a treat. Anna dodged this idea and said I would turn off every light in the house. Seeing the house closed, kids will just run away. David was trying to send Anna out of the house on the pretext of Halloween, but Anna was not in a mood. Now at night, kids arrived and started making noise outside the house. They start throwing eggs at the main door.
They knew that Anna would be inside the house. Kids are not stupid. L O L. This infuriates Anna, she shouts at these kids from behind the door. When kids don't deter her, she opened the main door a bit. As soon as she tried to go out, her breathing became fast, and she faints. She had a panic attack. Next we see a lady at Anna's house who picked her up.
Anna thought this as Ethan's mom, Jane Russell. She tells her about her condition and chit-chat about all topics over drinks. Anna likes her ring. Jane was an artist, hence she made a beautiful sketch. While chit-chatting, Anna took a photo of her cat punch. Later Anna saw Jane entering the house number 101. That night Mr Alistair Russell comes to Anna's house and asks if anyone from her family had come here. Anna being skeptical directly lies that no one had come.
Next day David takes the box cutter from Anna as he was hired by Alistair. David was working there to arrange the household items in their place. On the same night, Anna heard someone screaming from the front house 101. Anna calls Ethan to check on him but ignores her. She saw Jane coming from that house in panic. She called Ethan again, but this time Mr Alister picked the phone. He denies anyone screaming and hangs the call. Anna checks with David on whether he heard a scream. David was in a bad mood, hence he directly denies it. Anna takes her digital camera and zooms it on Russell's house. She saw Mr Alister arguing with Ethan where it seemed Mr Alister snapped at Ethan.
Later Ethan arrives at Anna's house and explains everything. Anna calms him down, gives him her number and assures him of all possible help if needed. Next morning she talks to Dr. Landy about reporting the case as clearly it was a domestic crime. But Dr. Landy discourages her and asked her to mind her own business. Here Anna also saw David leaving with his friends. The next day, Ananya falls asleep on her phone while watching a French movie after having multiple drinks.
At night she woke up when she heard the same screaming voice again. She looked through her camera at Russell's house. This time Jane was there, she was arguing with someone. Suddenly, someone poked a knife in her, she started bleeding and dyeing. Panicked Anna called 911. She took an umbrella and slowly started moving out of the house. The umbrella here was supposed to act as a coping mechanism, but it was not working. Just after leaving the house, she fell unconscious.
Next we see Anna in her house where Detective Little, Detective Norellie and Mr Alistair were there. Anna was scared seeing Mr Alistair here, Detective Little assures her that there is nothing to be afraid of. Everything is alright. There is no murder here. Now Mr Alister's wife, Mrs Jane Russell, came forward and introduced herself to Anna. This was a different lady whom Anna met and saw getting killed. Anna was confused, she says she is not Jane Russell. This lady is lying. She started arguing. Ethan here also confirms that this new lady is, in fact, his mother. Mr. Alistair presses charges against Anna for spying.
Detective Little pacifies everyone and gives his card to Anna if she needs any help. The police here conclude that Anna might be having hallucinations. Next day Anna starts searching for Mr. Alistair Russell on social media. She learns about the death of a woman named Pamela Nazin who was Mr. Alistair's personal assistant.
She died as a result of falling from the 6th floor in Boston. Anna learned from Mr. Alistair's office that his family has been shifting cities after Pamela's death. Anna goes to talk to David about it, but he was not in the basement. She found several intimation letters there which were from the Connecticut prison authorities. David was on parole, he missed a couple of them and kept this hidden from Anna. Now David gets very angry seeing Anna in his room, his behavior suddenly becomes aggressive. He talks about going to Connecticut tomorrow to sort out the problem. Anna asks him again if he ever saw Jane while working in Alistair's house. On this, David furiously says no. Anna was surprised by this as he was talking nice to her for so many days. But suddenly his attitude had changed.
Anna now starts taking photos of Alistair's house every day. New Jaane scolded her once over the phone after seeing her snooping. Next day Anna doesn't find her cat Punch anywhere in the house. She started looking for it everywhere. Finally, she found it under the bed of a guest room on the third floor. Anna wondered how it got there. Later we hear Anna's husband Ed's voice in the house where he and Anna were arguing. Ed says you are deluded by drinks, medicine has made you doubt everyone, you have to stop this and move forward. To all this, Anna says others can do it, but I couldn't.
Here the thing was that all this conversation was happening in Anna's mind, there was no Ed in real or on the phone. Ed was only in her mind. Meaning, Anna was showing symptoms of schizophrenia where hearing voices is common. The same morning Anna saw Ethan going to school, she called him in and said I will help you. You don't need to be afraid. Ethan also wanted to say something, but at the same time Alistair comes there and sends him out. He shouts very aggressively at Anna and asks her to stay away from her family.
Anna was convinced with Mr. Alistair's behaviour that something was not right. As she was a Psychiatrist, it was her day job to read people. Later while checking her medication, Anna found the drawing of herself which Jane drew for her. Later that night, Anna gets an email in which there was a photo of her sleeping, the time stamp on it was 2 AM last night. Meaning, someone sneaked into her house and took the photo. Anna again called Detective Little and showed him that picture. Mr and Mrs Alistair were also there with the police where they complained about Anna's snooping. They press the charges of harassment. As these guys were bickering, David walked into the house. Detective Little asked him about his last night location to which he said I was in Connecticut. He also gives his alibi. Now Anna shares her theory with the police. She says I have seen the same earrings that Jane wore on David's bed. David was a convict. David says that the earing belongs to a lady named Katherine. She was here for a one-night stand. Anna continues her rant and suspicion of all these people.
She accuses them of collusion. She says none of you are believing me, not listening to me, you think I am crazy, delusional, but I know what I saw. My family believes in me. Anna was emotionally charged here, she was crying. Here detective Norelie bluntly says Anna, your family is dead. After hearing this, Anna gets another panic attack. We are shown a flashback of what was actually going through her mind. We see Anna traveling with her husband Ed and daughter Olivia in a car for Christmas holidays. Ed was not at all happy with this trip as he had known about Anna's affair. He wanted to get divorced. Both of them start quarreling in the car itself where the car gets into an accident. Ed and Olivia die on the spot. The injured Anna was stuck there and called 911. This trauma started her agoraphobia. Her mind had not accepted it, she thought that her family was still alive. She was always talking to them in her mind. For the first time in 10 months she realised her symptoms clearly. At the beginning of the film, we saw Anna talking to her daughter on the phone, that was an illusion as well. She now apologizes to Mr. Alistair, Police and David.
Detective Little makes an appointment with Dr. Landy while expressing his solidarity with Anna. Anna for the first time admits to Dr. Landy that she is having a heavy drink, not taking the medication properly, she needed a wakeup call, and yesterday's incident was the same. Dr. Landy increases the sessions to three times a week. David was also leaving from here after packing his items. Anna now makes a video which was her last wish and testament. She was clearly suicidal. At night, he starts seeing photos of her family on her mobile. There she saw a photo of Punch which she took when Jane was at this house. When she enlarged it in the laptop, she clearly saw Jane's reflection on the wine glass. Meaning she didn't have hallucination, Jane was real. Anna was in shock, she called David and asked him to take a look. David saw it, confirmed it, and then he started telling the truth.
He says this lady is Kathrine, she was the birth mother of Ethan. She was an addict. She ran away from Alistair when she was 8 months pregnant. Alistair found her two years later in a Rehab Center. He kept the baby with him on medical ground and sent Kathrine to jail. Alister and Jane have been running away from Katherine since she was out. Katherine finally found them in Boston when they left there, then she found them here. She told all this to me when I had a one-night stand with her. She was so chatty I couldn't bear it. The very next day I went away from here with my friends. Anna was shocked to hear this, she said this was the lady whom she saw getting killed.
David was not interested in going to the police with this as he himself had a record. He just wanted to be safe. Hence, he walks away to his basement to pack his things. Anna begs him to come clean, but he refuses. Just after a few minutes we see Ethan with a knife in his hand, at Anna's room. He had attacked David with it, he was showing all the signs of a serial killer. He says to Anna that from the very first day my eyes were on you, I was watching you. Actually, my plan was not to kill you but to watch you commit your suicide. But now that I know about you and David, I can't leave you. Ethan says that it was he who killed Katherine, not Alistair. She was not a responsible mother. She was harassing us all.
Anna now understood Ethan's psychology. She started pretending in front of him, she poured all her drugs in the wine and started to drink it. When Ethan lowered his guard, Anna hit him with a wine bottle. While running, she slipped on David's blood and fell, David was not dead but was dying slowly. He stops Ethan by holding his leg. Finally, Ethan kills him. Anna screamed at once seeing this and ran directly to the roof. For the first time in ten months she goes out. As soon as she went out, her condition got worse. But since her body was already in fight or fight mode, this doesn't made much difference. She started adapting it. Ethan arrived at the roof and started attacking Anna. A fight broke between these too, where Anna finally pushed him down to the ground. Ethan dies from falling. Next we see Anna in the hospital where Detective Little says sorry to Anna. He gave her a phone and asked her to delete her sucidal video. Mr Alistair and Jane were arrested for hiding the murder. So, this was the story. This film is based on the book by the same name. Here, despite being a psychiatrist, Anna was not taking her condition seriously, was heavy drinking, was not even trying to get a cure. This whole episode woke her up. Mental health is a serious issue. One should not take it light.
