Review of Needful Things (1993) by Adam P — 29 Jul 2007

Based on one of Stephen King's better novels (and the final "Castle Rock" story), Needful Things tells the story of a small town in Maine that is torn apart when a strange little man moves in and opens a secondhand store. No matter what anybody most desires, our shopkeep seems to have it in stock... but he isn't in the market for money. He wants... favors. The way he manipulates people, preying on their desires, makes him a terrifying enemy, and one of King's best.

Like a great many of the DVDs MGM seems to be putting out, this is a fairly empty little disc. As far as special features you get a trailer and... that's it. Not even (at least, in the package I got) the standard insert with the names of the chapter breaks. Pathetic. The movie itself is... just okay. Max Von Sydow turns in a good performance as Leland Gaunt, the chilling shopkeeper who is more than he appears, Ed Harris is pretty much always good and makes for a good cop caught up in circumstances beyond his control. For about the first two-third of the movie, in fact, the story follows the book in a quite satisfying fashion.

For about the first two-thirds.

Hollywood seems so intent on changing the endings of Stephen King's books when they make them into movies, and I have yet to see an improvement. I am in the minority of people who hates Stanley Kubrick's version of "The Shining" because of how he takes a story about redemption and makes it bleak and hopeless. I have almost the opposite complaint here -- the filmmakers took an ending that was satisfyingly dark and made it uncharacteristically upbeat and chipper. It just didn't work.

The movie is mildly entertaining, worth a rental if you're a King fan, certainly worth catching on cable -- but as for the DVD, I can't recommend it.