MISERY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Rob Reiner had a real coup casting
unknown Kathy Bates as Annie Wilks in MISERY. But it wasn't
good enough to save this from being his most unpleasant and
least exceptional film. There are sparks of wit but they do
not kindle much warmth. Rating; high 0 (-4 to +4).
Stephen King showed up as advertised at a World Fantasy Convention I attended in Ottawa. I have a review copy of CARRIE I found cheap in a used bookstore and I thought this would be a good opportunity to get it autographed. I had no idea the investment of time it would require. The limit was three books per person and even with that limit King could have easily spent twelve hours straight just autographing books for his fans. But the number was not so amazing as the fervor of some of his fans. Some fans scouted at the front of the line to find people who were holding fewer than three books and who could be coerced into getting someone else's book autographed. Now recognize, King is only a reasonably competent writer. But he is a celebrity and every celebrity seems to have a cult of admirers in which a fair percentage carry their adulation to the point of being nuisances. Martin Scorsese's KING OF COMEDY shows not too unrealistically the fervor of some fans, including King's.
That King knows the extremities of what fans will do and uses it as the basis of a book is hardly surprising. What is a little more surprising is that King would, knowingly or not, combine the idea with a plot that had previously been done on NIGHT GALLERY. In the "Marmalade Wine" episode a man, played by Robert Morse, takes refuge from a storm in the secluded house of a lonely surgeon, played by Rudy Vallee. The surgeon seems only too pleased to have a guest he can care for. The visitor finds himself drugged and wakes to the surgeon cheerfully informing him, "I've taken the liberty of amputating your feet. Have some oatmeal." (There are further plot parallels, but revealing them would be a MISERY spoiler.)
Well, there you have the basic plot of Rob Reiner's adaptation of the Stephen King novel MISERY. James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, author of eight melodramatic books about a heroine named Misery. He mangles himself in a car accident in a Colorado snowstorm and awakes to find himself in the overly loving care of his self-professed "Number One Fan," Annie Wilks. Kathy Bates plays Nurse Wilks, who refuses to share her patient with any hospital and instead cares for him attentively in her own home. Wilks takes the occasion to read the eighth book about Misery. When the Number One Fan finds out Sheldon has killed off Misery, the number two really hits the fan. Sheldon will be held a prisoner until he writes a novel resurrecting Misery. Wilks flashes from adulation to rage to depression. Bates's combination of winning child-like innocence and monstrous menace--perhaps not so far apart--is really what makes the film tick. Caan's flat performance goes almost unnoticed next to Bates. Richard Farnsworth and Frances Sternhagen as a husband and wife sheriff and deputy have some chemistry but not enough screen time really to show it.
It seems as if every popular lead actor in Hollywood will eventually be cast as "the good cop" in an action film and every director in Hollywood will eventually direct a Stephen King horror film. Maybe it only seems that way. But MISERY is certainly Rob Reiner's least remarkable film to date. It is hard to imagine that MISERY is from the same director who made has a very distinguished set of films including THE SURE THING and THE PRINCESS BRIDE. Reiner seems to have been gambling very heavily on Kathy Bates's performance to set this film apart and make it a Reiner film. Bates was good but not that good.
In the end MISERY is a very minor horror film not too different from DEAD OF WINTER or several others. My rating would be a high 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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