Review of Misery (1990) by Rachel H — 11 Jan 2011

I just saw this movie and I already know I love it. I have not yet seen many Stephen King movies like The Shining and Shawshank Redemption, but I think misery is one of the best adaptations of one of his books to date. It is a true scary film even if I find it more creepy than scary, and its incredibly well-acted. The premise of Misery is what I assume is every celebrity's worst nightmare. Namely, to be in the hands of an obsessive fan who's not mentally well and you are incapable of escape.

Poor James Caan has a lot to deal with in this movie, namely in the form of Annie Wilkes. For those of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie, Misery is about Paul Sheldon, a famous author of the Misery novels, a series of romance novels about Misery Chastaine. He just finishes off the series with the death of the main character when he gets in a terrible car wreck and breaks both his legs. The lady that ends up saving his life is the infamous Annie Wilkes, who claims to be his number one fan. I'm not going to tell you how the events of the film play out in case you want to see it, but it is very suspenseful as opposed to being outright scary like so many horror films today.

The main strength in this besides Stephen King's original material is the acting from our two leads. Kathy Bates received endless praise (and an Oscar) for her performance as Annie and rightfully so, because she was fantastic. Acting opposite her is James Caan, a pretty good actor unto himself, who's best performance is in this movie is definitely his best. There are some other actors in the movie too, namely the sheriff and his wife plus Paul's editor Marsha, but none of them hold a candle to James and Kathy.

While Misery is not the scariest of Stephen King's works, it is definitely his most suspenseful and it kept me guessing until the very end. Part of that is definitely the fact that Annie could change personalities at the drop of a hat. She saves the life of her favourite author and proceeds to go crazy (crazier than she already was) when she finds out he's killing off her favourite character. She nurses him back to health, but forces him to burn his new manuscript, straps him to a bed, re-breaks both his legs and forces him to write a sequel resurrecting Misery, the character he killed off. Pretty scary huh? Well, in my opinion, the screaming and yelling wasn't all that terrifying, but it was the scenes where she was kind and caring that really put me on edge because anything could set her off. Needless to say, I think Annie Wilkes is Kathy Bates' best performance and she truly deserved that oscar and all the praise.

If you are a fan of any Stephen King book or if you just like good thrillers and are tired of shitty movie after shitty movie coming from Hollywood, I would recommend misery to you. Thankfully, this is not one of the movies from the eighties/early nineties that is not being remade because nobody could top it, not ever. Girded by strong performances and the strength of Stephen King's source material, Misery is one of the best thrillers I have ever seen and one I would recommend to anyone.