FIVE months of dust collection will come to an end next week, with cinemas across England finally permitted to rev up their popcorn makers and throw open their doors.

In the meantime, for our last week of video on demand dependence, Netflix finally release Joe Wright’s long awaited adaptation of A. J. Finn novel: The Woman in the Window.

It’s been a bumpy ride from script to screen - with Covid-19 only part of the story - but all things come to those who wait.

Heading up an all star cast, Amy Adams plays agoraphobic psychologist Dr. Anna Fox. Her life destabilised both by a traumatic car accident and recent separation from her husband, the film finds Anna living as a recluse in her large New York home. She depends on drink, online chess and forums to get through her days and has taken to spying on her neighbours through her window.

Chief among her subjects are the Russells. Gary Oldman is the patriarchal Alistair Russell, Fred Hechinger is his quiet and reserved son Ethan and Julianne Moore his wife, with whom Anna shares a bond.

All may not be as it seems, however. When Anna witnesses the murder of Jane Russell across the street, her initial horror is only the beginning. No one will believe her. How can they, when Jane Russell is alive and well? But wait, she’s now played by Jennifer Jason Leigh.

It wasn’t the pandemic that first delayed The Woman in the Window. First slated for a 2019 release, Wright’s film was hauled back for rewrites and reshoots just months before its debut, after a test audience failed to get their heads around it.

This isn’t necessarily uncommon in Hollywood but neither is it promising of success. A March 2020 slating followed and we all know what happened next.

Now shafted to online only, The Woman in the Window will most likely be remembered as the very last feature to be released under the Fox 2000 banner.

Disney now own the brand and have no interest in pursuing it. A condemnation that may well prove all too apt as audiences finally get the chance to see the film for themselves. Having enjoyed the book - a real page turner - this critic lives to be proven wrong.