Misery Loves Company...Misery's Fan Ain't Gonna Let You Leave!! (Misery (DVD))

Name: wampyrii

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Product:	Misery (DVD)
Date:	19/07/01 (52 review reads)
Rating:

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Adaptations of Stephen King movies have been pretty much hit and miss over the years, going from the sublime(Shawshank Redmption, Green Mile) to the plain useless(IT, Pet Semetary). Misery falls somewhere in between those two boundaries, certainly not being a bad movie, but at the same time not hitting the high notes which it perhaps ought to have done. Nevertheless, it is still a pretty fine movie and one with one of the most horrific and cringeworthy scenes in movie history.

Paul Sheldon is a romance novelist who writes about a character called Misery Chastain. Hugely successful he has an army of fans, but one day when driving home in a blizzard he spins off the road and crashes. His legs are trapped and in the plummeting temperatures he appears doomed until fortuitously he is rescued. Not only that, but his rescuer Annie turns out to be a huge fan of his, especially the character of Misery and seems willing to do just about naything to please him...that is until she finds out that he intends to kill off Misery in the pursuit of fresh challenges. Annie truns from adoring fan to psychopath who forces him to write another novel about Misery for her, stopping at nothing to keep him in her house whilst he does so...and I mean nothing.

Misery is certainly not one of King's all out horror novels but rather something of a psychological chiller. The movie adaptation tries really hard to match the intensity of the novel but unfortunately fails to do so. To be fair, not much happens in the novel with much of the 'action' going on in Paul's head as he lays trapped in the bed, his body broken and immobilised by his tormentor. A complete translation to the silver screen was obviously a bridge to far, but it still manages to be a good movie. Most of its appeal surely comes down to an absolutely stunning performance by Kathy Bates. As the pudgy, reclusive Annie, she portrays the unbalanced psychopath to perfection, putting in a truly frightening
performance. Her mania is probably the best depiction of such that I have seen in a movie and is truly chilling. Caan on the other hand is ok, but has rather little to do other than look worried and pained. Reiner opts for a rather derivative style of horror and the ending looks like something which the Halloween movies would have been proud of - the unkillable psycho scenario over again which is a big let-down.

Overall though, a good movie, but one which perhaps could have been better if directed by another. Kathy Bates deserved her Oscar here and its worth renting the movie just to see her performance in some respects. If you do then you are in for 1h47m of psychological horror which almost gets you, but somehow just misses...a valiant attempt nonetheless.

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