By Jeff Powalisz

Acutely aware of Johnny Depp’s current standing in Hollywood, movie executives have given the actor a role that will undoubtedly add to his star power.

“Secret Window” has all of the right ingredients for a memorable thriller. Based on the Stephen King novella “Secret Window, Secret Garden,” it is written and directed by David Koepp (writer of “Mission: Impossible,” “Carlito’s Way,” and “Jurassic Park”) and stars Johnny Depp as a depressed and isolated novelist, Mort Rainey.

Unfortunately, the memorable sequences that define a great thriller/horror film are missing, and there is a general lack of intensity. It’s an interesting ride from start to finish, fueled by another great performance by Depp, but the swiftness and poise of Koepp’s other scripts is not present.

Mort lives alone in a cabin in the middle of the woods in upstate New York. After a heartbreaking separation from his adulterous wife Amy (Maria Bello), Mort leaves his former home for a life in the woods, with his only company being his daytime maid and dog.

This is where Koepp does the best job with the film. He brings across the small-town, remote life with great skill and shows the struggling life of Mort as a writer just as well. Wearing a worn-out bathrobe with long, wavy hair and glasses, Depp plays the frustrated, tired Rainey perfectly.

Rainey will often sit at his desk, surrounded by various books and papers, suffering a severe case of writer’s block and looking only to his dog and couch for comfort. However, one day a mysterious outsider with a strong, strangely evil Mississippi accent named John Shooter arrives at Mort’s door, claiming quite simply: “You stole my story.” The story is called “Secret Window,” and Shooter played by John Turturro claims that Rainey copied the story nearly word-for-word about a man feeling betrayed by his wife, who then murders her and buries her in a garden where she will be forgotten over time.

Mort tries to block the man out, but he returns, becoming increasingly violent and hostile, putting him into a situation he finds more difficult to get out of. King’s always-fascinating and rapid style is very much at work in the film, and the story is definitely helped in this regard.

Turturro, who has starred in a number of great, underrated performances over the years (“Barton Fink,” “Quiz Show,” and “The Big Lebowski”) is wholly eerie as Rainey’s stalker. As the situation surrounding Mort becomes more and more desperate, including Amy pressing him to sign their divorce papers, and Shooter wreaking more havoc in town, Depp continues to play his part in the strong, convincing tone most have come to expect from him in a career of memorable roles (“Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood” and “Donnie Brasco”).

For pure horror and flat-out whirlwind intensity, “Secret Window,” which also stars Timothy Hutton (“Sunshine State” and “Winds of Terror”) as Amy’s new lover and Charles S. Dutton (“Against the Ropes” and “Gothika”) as a New York detective hired by Rainey, does not do the job. However, its interesting themes of isolation, paranoia and revenge do mix well in Koepp and King’s setting, and Depp adds another stellar performance to his career list.

“Secret Window” is playing at AMC Fenway, Lowes Boston Common and Loews Fresh Pond in Cambridge.