Where would an October be without discussing at least one Stephen King piece? Much less interesting and much more sane for one probably. Here's one I've been meaning to check out for a while and finally got to recently--does it hold up, or is the title a rather blunt forewarning of what to expect?
Thankfully, as King adaptations go, it's certainly up there with Shining and Stand By Me (the latter also directed by Rob Reiner no less) then, say Tommyknockers. Reiner went from Princess Bride to some rather chilling stuff with this one--and while it may be far more limited in scope and sensibility, it's also a masterwork in using every resource it has for an enjoyably skin-creeping time.
James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, a somewhat disillusioned writer (gee, how subtle King is with his personal allegories), who has been pigeonholed into Victorian romance novel series Misery. These days, a writer like that would be cranking Amazon basket fodder for middle-aged moms, but I digress. On his way back from a stint in the Colorado mountains, Sheldon gets into an accident that leaves him paralyzed--only to be rescued by Annie Wilkies, played by Kathy Bates.
Bates is the real star of things--Wilkies starts off as a slightly eccentric but earnest and friendly type who turns out to be a real fan of Sheldon. Her performance is the lynchpin that makes the movie work--she seems bubbly enough, but just a notch too enthusiastic that it starts to enter discomforting territory. It's actually an improvement on the book, where she starts off as unpleasant and demented right off the bat. Here, we get time to lower our guard, so that when Sheldon starts inadvertently bringing her dark side to the fore, it's a gut punch that's sold by every harrowing expression, spite-filled line, and wild madness that Bates delivers.
It starts escalating from there, and you root all too easily for Sheldon to get out--even as he's deterred by spilt wine and ceramic penguins (it all makes sense in context, I promise). Every other scene, we start learning more about Wilkies, and what the stakes really are--while all the time, a local sheriff (Richard Farnsworth) is slowly cottoning onto things. Even though his part's small, you still cheer for him as well, even if he isn't undergoing both the mental and physical torment Sheldon is.
The only real flaw I found from Misery is that I wanted just a little more from the climax and the final scene--but it's a perfect example of less is more. There's no CG flurrying like in It, there's no silliness with aliens like in Dreamcatcher--but most of it is just two people in a house, with every square meter, every motion, played to perfection. I definitely recommend it if you haven't seen it--there's enough to make you wince, there's enough to make you cheer, give it a watch as soon as you can. You'll be left with everything but the title.
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