Misery

I don't know why it took me this long to watch Misery, but even after 25 years and countless imitators, this film rocks my socks.

Paul Sheldon is a famous writer, most famous for his ongoing series titled 'Misery'. After completing a new novel up in the middle of nowhere, he races back to civilization to deliver the draft. Big mistake, a freak snow storm makes him lose control of his car and crash. Luckily he is saved by a woman who lives in the area. She takes care of him while he is bed ridden and luckily for him, she is his number one fan.

Based on the Stephen King novel, Misery takes fan admiration one, two, maybe three steps too far. We enter the world of Annie Wilkes, a deranged woman who will stop at nothing to keep her favourite author locked up in her house, just to have him all to herself. At first, she seems like a loveable do-gooder. She won't swear, she's overly nice and humble. Things start to crack here and there when she doesn't hear things that she likes. Violent outbursts, stone cold stare downs and even sledgehammers make it into the mix. That sledgehammer scene by the way, which is arguably the most famous scene in the film, still makes me cringe even though I've seen numerous clips of it over the years. Extremely well done in my opinion. On the flip side of that, the scene when someone smacks their head on the typewriter...horribly done. Laughably, horribly done. That's the one hiccup in this otherwise, tightly directed film.

I was surprised by the amount of talent behind the camera. Reiner directing, William Goldman adapting the story from King and Barry Sonnenfeld as the cinematographer. All three of these areas are highlights of the film. Without reading the book, I get the sense that Goldman managed to get the best adaptation of the work possible. Reiner gives us many scenes of unnerving tension, heightened because our lead protagonist can't even walk. Sonnenfeld captures the cold wintery landscape beautifully in scenes and really lets us feel the isolation.

The real standout is of course, Bates. In her breakout role, which won her on Oscar no less, she commands the screen with oddity. She even makes snorting like an exciting pig seem perfectly fine, yet still oddly out of place in her role of Annie the psycho Wilkes. Every scene she was in, I had no idea what to expect. Will she be happy, mean, excited, deranged or dangerous? Sometimes she'd be all of them in a matter of seconds. An outstanding performance for sure, one that could have crippled the film is not done as well as she did. Caan manages to hold his own against her. I feel he has just as difficult a job in that he is restricted from using his body as much as one would like. He relies more on his facial expressions than anything else, he has to. Of course there is Richard Farnsworth, he is a loveable goofball here as the Sheriff. He delivers his lines with such soft, caring and humourous attitude that he almost feels like he should be in a different film. All three performances here are great and deserve recognition.

Misery is a great film that I'm ashamed to have put off for so damn long.