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Misery (1990)
 
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Director:
Rob
Reiner |
COUNTRY
USA |
GENRE
Horror/Thriller |
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NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Misery
– kidnappet |
RUNNING
TIME
107
minutes |
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Producers:
Andrew
Scheinmann
Rob Reiner |
Screenplay:
William
Golding |
Based
on the novel by:
Stephen King |
Review
Rob Reiner took good care of Stephen King's young characters in the
coming-of-age drama Stand
By Me in 1986. And so it was probably a deciding factor
for King to finally allow his novel "Misery" to be adapted to
the big screen that Reiner signed on
as director. The lacking success of King's
previous screenwriting efforts led the producers to William Golding for
the adaptation. And although Golding delivered an effective script which
kept in line with the plot of
the book, he arguably missed the most vital part: getting under Paul
Sheldon's skin, making us feel his pain, his suffering and his fear. In that
respect, Reiner's film only grazes the surface, and a somewhat offhand James Caan doesn't help this cause.
That being said, the perversity and intensity of the novel is retained
and made aptly cinematic by Reiner, who utilizes and gets the best out
of Kathy Bates
in the lead. Her constant shifts between feelings of adoration and
disgust for Paul, between wanting to control him and wanting to be swept off
her feet by him like an unfledged teenager, make her performance as Annie Wilkes
intriguing, chilling
and hilarious at the same time. She deserves her canonical status as
one of the great movie villains. There are also
delightful performances by the wonderful Richard Farnsworth and King favourite Frances Sternhagen as the
town's ageing sheriff and his wife.
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