Misery

Rob Reiner, USA 1990, 107 minutes

The general rule for Stephen King adaptations is `The gorier the book, the worse the movie'. This explains the poor quality of films like Christine, Firestarter, Pet Semetary and Cujo, while explaining the excellence of Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining and this movie.

The set-up is extremely simple; James Caan is Paul Sheldon, a best-selling writer of slushy, romantic fiction. He is tired of prostituting his talent on pulp so decides to kill off his long-time heroine, Misery Chastain, and concentrate on `serious writing'. He is driving home from the isolated hotel where he likes to finish his books, with the only manuscript of his first `serious' novel, when his car crashes in a snowdrift. He is rescued from the car by Annie Wilkes (an Oscar-winning tour-de-force from Kathy Bates) who just happens to be a nurse and his `number one fan'. He is well on the road to recovery when the final Misery book is released. When Annie reads what he has done to her beloved Misery, things turn very nasty. She transforms from gushing, obsequious servant to maniacal, shrieking harridan.

In a scene that will bring a tear to the eye of anyone who has ever taken time writing something, she forces him to burn his precious new book and start another Misery novel in which she comes back from the dead.

The tension in this claustrophobic two-hander is unbearable. The ebb and flow of the love/hate relationship between captor and captive forms the narrative structure of the movie. The camera stays almost entirely in one room and every time the door opens we squirm with Paul, not knowing whether Annie is in a good mood or a bad one; bringing soup or a sledgehammer. With the agonising building-up of tension alleviated by the occasional all-out scream, this has to be one of the most frightening films of all time.

"Reiner captures just the right level of physical tension. Terrific" - Time Out

Review by Ben Stephens
Taken from EUFS Programme 1996-97