Review: Misery (1990)

Misery

Rating

Director

Rob Reiner

Screenplay

William Goldman (Novel: Stephen King)

Length

1h 47m

Starring

James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren Bacall, Jerry Potter

MPAA Rating

Review

What would you do if you met your number one fan? What would happen if you pissed them off? Misery attempts to scare the audience with a horrifying and frightfully authentic take on the stalker archetype.

Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a world-renowned romance novelist but he’s tired of writing about his heroine, Misery Chastain. With his final Chastain novel in hand on his way to his publisher, he crashes on an icy road and is rescued by his biggest fan, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). She agrees to nurse him back into health but after reading his final novel, she becomes unhinged and ensures that he’s going nowhere until he rewrites the novel to her satisfaction. Locked in the cabin with this crazed fan, no hope of escape, he acquiesces but quietly plots his own escape.

Known primarily for his comedies, director Rob Reiner takes a shocking departure into the world of Stephen King whose novel Misery is one of his most gruesome in many regards. As violent and unnerving as Reiner’s film is, screenwriter William Goldman neuters some of the most vicious moments from the book, including how Sheldon is hobbled and a scene regarding a lawn mower late in the novel. It’s a finely tuned adaptation that maintains the themes of the novel without completely sacrificing the violent and horrific aspects. The film ranks with Carrie as one of the best novel-to-film adaptations of one of King’s novels. There are better King adaptations that were less reliant on the source material but they don’t quite compare to the one-to-one impressiveness of this work.

Yet, this film would be nothing without its core performance. Bates is tremendous, a tour-de-force not before seen on film. It’s unhinged, vicious, and yet bares a portion of humanity that helps make the character realistic and terrifying in equal measure. This is the kind of performance an actor can never top and while Bates has been great since, nothing has yet bested this singular effort. That isn’t to discount Caan who turns in fine work but he also understands that his own sympathy relies on Bates being able to convey all that she does. It’s a selfless performance that enables the yin-and-yang of these characters perfectly.

While it might not be most audiences’ first experience with a King adaptation, it is easily one of the most accessible. Misery doesn’t require a deep dive into the human psyche, the nuances of creator-fan dynamics, or any other esoteric examination of the premise. Those are great factors to consider but for the average viewer, the simple deranged stalker concept is easy to understand and utterly captivating on its own and that’s all thanks to the brilliant work Bates has crafted in this indelible screen performance.