NEEDFUL THINGS
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, J. T. Walsh. Screenwriter: W. D. Richter. Director: Fraser C. Heston.
NEEDFUL THINGS is the eighteenth feature film based on the published works of author-cum-cottage industry Stephen King. If one adds sequels, original screenplays and television adaptations, that totals roughly 50 hours of film treatment, about two thirds of which has been useful only as a mild sedative. Although to state that King's works have fared poorly in translation to the screen may be to give him more credit than he is due, it is certainly true that King on screen has been far less successful than King in print. That is not likely to change with NEEDFUL THINGS. Lacking the suspense to be a crossover hit like MISERY, or sufficient mayhem to please the Freddy Krueger crowd, it treads a soggy middle ground, going for cheap laughs rather than working up solid scares.
Set in King's favorite haunted hamlet of Castle Rock, Maine (still thriving in spite of serial killings, a rabid St. Bernard and two or three minor demonic possessions), NEEDFUL THINGS begins with the arrival of Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow), a grandfatherly sort who opens a curio shop called Needful Things. It turns out to be a rather special shop, one wherein every patron can find the one thing that he or she wants most in the world. As a fee, Gaunt asks only that the purchaser perform a small task, a prank on a fellow citizen. When the pranks begin to turn sour, Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) begins to investigate, and slowly begins to believe that Mr. Gaunt is not exactly what he seems.
There is the germ of an intriguing idea in NEEDFUL THINGS, one borrowed from Ray Bradbury's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES: what would you be willing to do for your heart's desire? Add to that the simmering hatreds and intolerance beneath the veneer of polite interaction, and there's the potential for something beyond your run-of-the-mill gore fest. Screenwriter W. D. Richter and director Fraser C. Heston set up reasonably well, but don't deliver. NEEDFUL THINGS seems to take forever to get any kind of momentum going, and when it does at last seem to be moving it runs into a brick wall of silly dialogue and shoddy acting.
The latter is somewhat surprising given the reasonably talented cast. The performances range from the competent (Bonnie Bedelia as the sheriff's girlfriend) to the confused (Harris) to the scenery- chewing (almost everyone else). Valri Bromfield sneers and swears as a loony turkey farmer; Amanda Plummer does a New England accented variation on her standard eccentric; J. T. Walsh seems to be channeling Jack Nicholson's performance from THE SHINING, but without the charisma, as the town's pompous leading citizen. The biggest shock is von Sydow, who seems completely miscast. He appears to revel in the campier elements, never bringing any genuine menace to Gaunt. It's hard to stir up any dread towards a character who calls his enemy a "wussy."
I suppose the blame for that lies with Richter, best know as the creator of the campy cult favorite THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI. He seems to have been a poor choice for this job, sacrificing suspense for silly punch lines. His black-humored approach to the story just didn't work. Similarly, director Heston (yes, _that_ Heston's son) doesn't quite have the deft touch required to direct suspense. He does a nice job with the fantasy sequences as Gaunt entices his customers, but other elements go completely astray. He never gives his actors a sense for the proper tone, which makes it appear that Harris and Bedelia are acting in a different movie than everyone else. And he lays on the atmospheric smoke in Gaunt's shop so thick I thought I could see it puffing in from off-camera. NEEDFUL THINGS is muddled, and in too many of the wrong hands.
I did find a few moments of amusement, all of which were probably unintentional. In one scene, a jukebox skips while playing "Achy Breaky Heart," repeating the title over and over. Also ironic is Harris' statement that "this is a quiet town." Given Castle Rock's history in the King canon, "quiet" is definitely not the adjective which springs to mind.
I think a line by Gaunt summarizes NEEDFUL THINGS better than I ever could: "A couple of deaths, a few explosions ... not my best work, but what the hell."
Indeed.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 explosions: 3.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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