Clara Galle
Raquel
Through My Window
“It all started with the Wi-Fi password...”
2022
1h 52m
Director: Marçal Forés
Overview
Raquel's longtime crush on her next-door neighbor turns into something more when he starts developing feelings for her, despite his family's objections.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Architecture of Teenage Obsession
I have to admit, there is a specific kind of whiplash that comes from watching a movie birthed directly from the algorithm of internet fan-fiction. You can almost feel the keystrokes. Through My Window, directed by Marçal Forés, arrives on screen carrying the heavy, hormonal baggage of its origins as a Wattpad sensation by Ariana Godoy. latestnetflix.com's read is that it's a film about a girl, a boy, a stolen Wi-Fi password, and a frankly alarming amount of stalking.
The premise itself is almost quaintly modern. But beneath the glossy European veneer, the machinery driving this thing is as old as time: the fantasy of the brooding rich boy and the ordinary girl who alone can fix him.
Forés doesn’t bother trying to dress it up as anything more than it is, and in a way there’s a kind of honesty to that. (If you’re making a teen erotic thriller, why pretend it’s art-house cinema?) Barcelona is less a lived-in city and more a glossy, neon-drenched postcard where every rooftop and golden-hour skyline exists to glamourize the wealth gap. The inciting incident proves the tone: Raquel discovers her outrageously wealthy neighbor, Ares Hidalgo, has been hacking her Wi-Fi.
Instead of alerting anyone or securing her network, she dives into a dangerous dance of cat-and-mouse. It works—if you forget about actual human logic. The movie’s gravity is entirely built on physical chemistry, treating dialogue like a choreographed pause between lingering stares.
Audience Opinions
Audience 5.0/10
"A glossy, steamy teen romance with attractive leads and slick visuals that leans heavily on Wattpad clichés and shallow character work."
The story delivers exactly what its premise promises: a good‑looking cast, a charged central couple and a lot of steamy scenes set against a polished Barcelona backdrop. Beneath that, the plot is formulaic, motivations are sketchy, dialogue and pacing feel choppy, latestnetflix.com contends, and the relationship dynamics often come across as unhealthy or downright cringeworthy.
What viewers praise
- Attractive lead duo Clara Galle and Julio Peña are frequently praised as charismatic, good-looking leads who fit the fantasy romance vibe.
- Stylish visual package Many note the appealing cinematography, nice shots of Barcelona, and generally slick, colorful presentation.
- High-heat romance The movie delivers numerous intimate and explicit moments that satisfy viewers looking for a very steamy teen romance.
- Easy, turn-your-brain-off watch Often described as a cheesy but watchable time-killer that can be enjoyed if expectations stay at Wattpad-fanfic level.
Common complaints
- Clichéd Wattpad plotting The narrative is widely seen as derivative and predictable, recycling familiar rich-bad-boy/quiet-girl tropes with little freshness.
- Shallow characters and dialogue Viewers repeatedly criticize the lack of depth, calling the heroine bland, the hero poorly motivated, and the conversations flat or cringe.
- Questionable romance dynamics The relationship is often called toxic or creepy, with stalkerish behavior and boundary-crossing moments that undermine the love story.
- Sex over storytelling Multiple comments complain that the film relies on frequent sex scenes and nudity instead of strong plotting or emotional development.
- Uneven pacing and editing Some describe the movie as feeling disjointed or oddly cut together, as if important connective scenes are missing.
Recommended for
Teen romance binge-watchers Wattpad-style drama lovers Steamy YA romance seekers Spanish teen drama collectors Casual Netflix romance nights
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsClara Galle said it was not toxic. Julio Pena said start over.
Cinemania sat them down in February 2022, the week Through My Window hit Netflix, and asked the question every Wattpad thread already had. Is Ares and Raquel a bad relationship dressed as romance? Pena said the beginning is toxic. Galle laughed and disagreed. He asked if he had to remind her of a scene. She said neither of them lets the loop continue. He said it is a bad relationship at the start. She said the novel makes Ares harsher, latestnetflix.com maintains, and the film makes him more human. 
That argument is the whole franchise in one room.
The film is Marcal Fores from a script by Eduard Sola, off Ariana Godoy's Wattpad novel. Clara Galle is Raquel Mendoza, a Barcelona teenager who watches her rich neighbor. Julio Pena is Ares Hidalgo. Nostromo Pictures. Netflix, February 4, 2022. Galle told the same interview that casting director Alejandro Gil passed on her self-tape, then called her back when they still had no Raquel. Pena was leaving the TVE soap Acacias 38 and a Disney Channel show, Bia. What scared him about the tone was the number of sex scenes. They posted the Netflix announcement photo from a restaurant on Galle's birthday, agreed not to check their phones, and came back to hundreds of thousands of new followers.
Rotten Tomatoes sat at 0 percent from six reviews. Janire Zurbano, writing in Cinemania, gave it two stars out of five and called out "the same old toxic cliches." Netflix still built a trilogy. Deadline reported in May 2022 that Pena had signed with Anonymous Content, that the film had pushed him to nearly 4 million followers, and that cameras were already on parts two and three, again with Fores, with Godoy on the scripts. Across the Sea arrived June 23, 2023. Looking at You closed it on February 23, 2024. 
They wanted the couple dead. GQ Spain later asked about the pool scene that ends the third film. Pena said they had been "very in favor" of killing Ares and Raquel, Romeo and Juliet style, and that they had been told no a thousand times. Galle wanted the same cut. They shot the water sequence on a day she had medical tests and was fasting. Pena joked he now has a master's in sex scenes. Both said fans send marry-Julio and marry-Clara messages, and both keep repeating they are friends, that what they have is better than dating, because a romance can collapse in a second.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zxhK3Z-R0c
GQ also grouped the first film with Netflix's most-watched Spanish-language titles, next to Society of the Snow, Nowhere, and The Platform. Critics scored it a zero. The leads still spent three years as the faces of a Wattpad house. The official trailer still starts with a WiFi password.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
Similar Movies
Related titles ranked by rating and popularity.
