Paul should have zigged when he zagged and now he’s hurting
When Paul Sheldon decides to kill off his main character in his popular ‘Misery’ novel series he breathes a sigh of relief. His popular series has plagued his writing career and trapped him forever in a storyline that he desperately wanted to end. Regretfully for him, after a car crash in Colorado, and nearly dying in the snowy mountains, his number one fan, Annie, rescues him. All is well for Paul in his recovery, as he’s certainly sure that Annie is good hearted and God fearing. His notions of Annie change when she discovers that he’s trying to end Misery’s story, thus destroying the only true thing she’s loved in life. Demanding a change, Annie goes to ‘extremes’ to ensure that Paul doesn’t kill off the character, which includes a piece of wood and nice sledgehammer.
What a brutal film! I’ve seen really grotesque stories in my day, but the shear psychotics of Kathy Bates’ Annie hales now as the number one most frightening character in my movie going life. Bates plays this psycho so well that when you see her in other movies now you can’t help but remember how dastardly and deadly she was in Misery. This is the reason why most writers have zero contact with their fans. If I had fans I could give you more details. Her black widow demeanor draws you, the audience, in with James Caan’s Paul as she presents herself as a loving human being. Her less than subtle change, and her back and forth turn on a dime keeps you on the edge the entire film. I guess that’s what drives the movie, outside of the horrors of physical abuse, it’s the constant need to please this character and keep in her good graces. Bates makes this movie work and keeps it on track the entire way. Much like Paul, Caan’s there against his will and doing his best to survive the scenes.
I have to give two other people props for this film. The first is even surprising to me, Stephen King. If you have ever read a Stephen King novel you can understand how incredibly difficult it is to translate to screen. He is detailed to the last drop in his novels and generally when they’re brought to film or television they end up spending too much time worrying about the details than the progression of the storyline. So, in short, it’s tough to cut out the parts you don’t need and keep the ones you do. The man that helped keep that process on track is Rob Reiner. From the director of such films as The Jerk and The Princess Bride, Reiner has created the perfect balance of horror and character development. Generally you only get a minor bit of character development with the horror, but Reiner has got Misery perfectly balanced. You’ll remember the characters; you’ll recall the horror after remembering the characters. Both combined create a wonderful story that you won’t soon forget. Credit Reiner for pulling this off with a King book.
Black and blu, but still on DVD?
So, if you know about Misery you understand why people cringe, but are drawn to it. Quite simply, it’s one of the most frightening and grotesque movies of our lifetime. Don’t believe me? Watch it and find out. Better yet, watch it on blu-ray and find out. The HD version of this film is painfully perfect. You’ll find all the leg swelling, bone breaking and blood spilling visually perfect on a 1080p screen. Fox and MGM aren’t dumb; they realize how big this movie is for the Halloween season. They treated it with the respect it earned and made sure that fans who purchased this blu-ray got all the remastering they could stand; this includes both audio and video, which are dreadfully perfect.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
· Feature Commentary by Director Rob Reiner
· Feature Commentary by screenwriter William Goldman
· Misery Loves Company
· Diagnosing Annie Wilkes
· Advice for the Stalked
· Profile of a Stalker
· Celebrity Stalkers
· Anti−Stalking Laws
All of these features are great. The commentary from Reiner and Goldman is beyond priceless. Two very witty gentlemen telling you every aspect of a very frightening movie is a movie by itself. Anyway, all these features are solid, but there is one slight problem here. All of these features listed above are on a separate DVD. Yep, you read that correctly, you get them on a plain ol’ DVD. Why is this an issue? Well, this is a blu-ray. Shouldn’t the features be featured on a blu-ray? There is enough space on a blu-ray for non-HD features. This is completely unacceptable for this medium and something that should have been changed. These features should have been included on the blu-ray without any question. This is about as fun as getting up to flip over a DVD.
