Review of Misery (1990) by Cameron J — 26 Apr 2015

"Misery" is kind of like "The Shining" lite - both are set in the winter, both have writers as the central characters, and both have villains that are totally insane. There are obvious differences; in "The Shining" of course the writer is the one who goes crazy, there are numerous supernatural elements that aren't present in "Misery", and "Misery" doesn't exactly have the visual or philosophical depth that Kubrick brought to "The Shining".

Still, Rob Reiner's film is a very entertaining and often terrifying study of obsession, and its simplistic themes about Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates)' over-infatuation with Paul Sheldon (James Caan) still have a lot of relevance today in our age of fandoms and #Cut4Zayn / #Cut4Bieber.

Kathy Bates won the Oscar for her performance - the only Oscar ever won for a movie based on a Stephen King work - and so it's no surprise that her performance is hauntingly effective. James Caan is also great in his role as the writer. His performance is mainly physical, as many scenes are devoted to him trying to escape his imprisonment (Wilkes takes him in after he crashes his car during a snow storm, and pretends to "care" for him before forcing him to write her a new book to her liking).

It's a well-edited and nicely framed movie, though most of the entertainment value is down to the bare-bones, quickly-paced script and the committed performances from the leads. Richard Farnsworth and Frances Sternhagen are also great as the local sheriff and his wife, respectively, who attempt to figure out where Paul has gone after he's declared missing. The comic rapport between the two characters reminded me a bit of the characters played by Frances McDormand and John Carroll Lynch in "Fargo", though with a slightly more sarcastic tone. It's hard not to root for the small-town sheriffs in these films, anyways.