Through My Window

Through My Window (2022) is about a teenage girl in love with the boy next door. Raquel has been watching Ares in the building opposite for years. He is the son of a wealthy family, speaks to nobody at school, and his sisters are her friends. She keeps a notebook about him, and one day writes about him on the blog where she posts her stories. They meet. He is interested and his family will not allow it: his father has already planned his education and his marriage. The film stays inside the genre: a class difference, a relationship against the family, mutual attraction, and a separation. It is adapted from Ariana Godoy's novel, first published on Wattpad, where it reached very high readership; the film was built on that audience. It is a Spanish production made for Netflix. On release it reached the top of the lists in many countries and produced two sequels. The most criticised element is the lead's behaviour: Ares is jealous, controlling, and repeatedly breaks off the relationship and returns. The film presents this as attractive rather than as a problem, and that caused argument. Raquel's wish to be a writer is in the story but never developed. Clara Galle and Julio Peña star. It was shot in Barcelona. It runs 116 minutes. Good for: teenage romance, Wattpad adaptations, and undemanding viewing. Less good for: the sexual content is explicit, the relationship dynamic is a problem, and the script is predictable.