Misery

Misery

1990 "Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now, he’s writing to stay alive."
Misery
Misery

Misery

7.8 | 1h47m | R | en | Drama

After stalking and saving the life of her favorite fiction author in a car accident, his manic obsessor holds him captive in her remote Colorado home then forces him to write back to life the popular literary character he killed off.

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7.8 | 1h47m | R | en | Drama , Thriller | More Info
Released: November. 30,1990 | Released Producted By: Columbia Pictures , Castle Rock Entertainment Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

After stalking and saving the life of her favorite fiction author in a car accident, his manic obsessor holds him captive in her remote Colorado home then forces him to write back to life the popular literary character he killed off.

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Cast

James Caan , Kathy Bates , Richard Farnsworth

Director

Jody Gaber

Producted By

Columbia Pictures , Castle Rock Entertainment

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Reviews

Smoreni Zmaj I doubt that any writer in history had so many film and TV adaptations of his stories. According to my account, there are about a hundred of them and, as King is one of my favorite writers, I went straight in. I do not know whether he's difficult to adapt to a screenplay or it's just an unhappy coincidence, but most of these adaptations are a big disappointment for the fans of "king of horror". However, there are exceptions. Ten years (and seventeen King adaptations of questionable quality) after Kubrick's masterpiece "The Shining", Rob Reiner treated us with magnificent "Misery".This psychological drama-thriller is so powerful that it borders with horror. The movie starts quite relaxed, but from the very beginning gradually builds a hypnotic atmosphere that will keep you pinned to the screen. From minute to minute it becomes more tormented and tense, and it does not ease up even for a moment. King does not need monsters, explicit bloodshed, shock scenes or sudden turns, to keep you on the edge of the seat and distort your stomach. Nevertheless, the greatest merit for this film's impressiveness does not belong to King's story, but to the magnificent Kathy Bates. Even without her rich acting career, the role of Annie Wilkes in "Misery" would be enough to put her among the best actresses of all time. The persuasiveness of her instant transformations is amazing and she deservedly won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The masterpiece that everyone should see at least once.10/10
Paul Magne Haakonsen Having director Rob Reiner bring the classic Stephen King novel to life on the screen was actually a good thing back in 1990, because "Misery" turned out to be a rather good movie and a movie that packed a punch - pardon the pun.Of course, I would recommend that you read the book, as there are so many more details and things to be experienced there, and you get to put your own faces on the characters. But I must say that this movie version of the novella is rather outstanding, and that is because of a combination of the story, the directors work and the acting performances of primarily Kathy Bates and James Caan.The story told in "Misery" is a story that should appeal to just about everyone, I think. It is a story of obsession, isolation and desperation. I enjoy the story and have watched the movie a bunch of times over the years, and the movie keeps being just as entertaining as the first time I watched it.I think that having chosen both Kathy Bates and James Caan as the lead roles of Annie Wilkes and Paul Sheldon respectively was quite good, because they are quite capable performers and they did great jobs in "Misery". And there is a great chemistry between the two on the screen, which worked well in favor of the movie and storyline. In all honesty, then "Misery" was truly Kathy Bates' movie, because she far outshone James Caan with her performance.The gradual revealing of the level of obsession and lengths that Annie Wilkes was willing to go to was so nicely constructed in this movie, and director Rob Reiner managed to put that on the screen quite well. And the scenes that involved violence were quite expertly choreographed and captured on the screen, and it felt like you were right there in the ordeal with Paul Sheldon.The ending of the movie, well it was a fairly generic way to end the story, but of course, it was as it usually is in such thrillers/horrors. Could it have ended differently? Certainly. The ending of the movie is the only weak point in the entire movie for me.
Ross622 Rob Reiner once said after watching Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980) he was inspired to make a movie based on Stephen King's work, and four years after he directed "Stand by Me" (1986) he prepared himself for directing this movie by watching every single film by the legendary "Master of Suspense" himself Alfred Hitchcock. As the film opens we see a very famous novelist named Paul Sheldon (James Caan) drive his car in a snowstorm to his publishers' office to take a look at a novel in his "Misery" series that he had just finished but he never gets there because he's in a snowstorm and rolls down a hill covered in snow while still in his car, he then is bleeding with a bunch of cuts and broken bones on him. Sheldon is then dragged out of his car and rescued by his self-proclaimed #1 fan who is a licensed nurse named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) who takes care of him and nurses him back to health. During the next few days Sheldon's agent Marcia Sindell (Lauren Bacall) is very suspicious as to where Paul Sheldon is and then tells the local sheriff (Richard Farnsworth) to help find Sheldon and get the book published. As the film progresses we see that Wilkes is getting crazier and more psychotic in every single scene she is in and holds Sheldon hostage while mistreating him because she didn't like the latest and unpublished addition to his series of "Misery" novels as well as going so far as to burn all of the pages and make him write another book just so she can like the revised edition that he is being forced to do, and Sheldon is doing anything he can possibly think of to stay alive. I won't spoil anything else beyond this point in the review because I feel that the scenes after the climax are way too important to spoil. Reiner and his screenwriter William Goldman are very effective with the suspenseful dialogue, and Reiner's frequent composer Marc Shaiman's score only heightens the suspense all they way to a Hitchcockian level. The performances from both Caan (who gives his best performance since "The Godfather" (1972)) and Bates (who won an Oscar for her performance, which was well-deserved, and the best performance of her career) are top notch, and Bates' portrayal of Wilkes is one of the best portrayals of a psychopath that I've ever seen, which is on par with Anthony Perkins in "Psycho" (1960), Anthony Hopkins in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), Piper Laurie in "Carrie" (1976), Robin Williams in "Insomnia" (2002), Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (2008), Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" (1980), and Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" (2009). It is movies like this that prove that Rob Reiner is a directorial chameleon because he can make a good movie out of anything that is given to him, for example a courtroom drama like "A Few Good Men" (1992), and a children's movie like "The Princess Bride" (1987). This isn't the best movie that I've seen based on Stephen King's work but it's pretty darn close to it.
Hitchcoc I had a landlady in college who would sit down each day and write letters to the characters who appeared in her soap operas. Seriously, she would give them advice on their romantic encounters and their faux pas. So when I saw Kathy Bates going crazy with her captive, James Caan, it wasn't hard for me to make the leap to the actions of a psychotic, not seeing an actor for an actor. Bates is amazing in this movie in the sickest way possible. She just can't understand what is going on. The problem is that she is utterly dangerous, murderous. Of course, this is Stephen King, so we know there are Bates types around every corner. I felt, as I watched this play out, that I was punishing myself. What else could she do to him without killing him. The only other movie I felt this way about was the top horror movie of its year, "The Passion of the Christ," where Mel Gibson used every torture device and weapon to beat on Jesus's body before he was crucified. Anyway, I would warn anyone that has not seen this film to be ready for their own misery.