Misery

Misery (1990)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Rob Reiner

Starring: James Caan (RIP), Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren Bacall

From: Castle Rock 

RIP James Caan

Believe it or not, this was a first time watch for me, even if I did not go into this blind; I mean, Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her performance and the reasons why her role was memorable (not to mention the excellent job she did) was discussed at the time. Thus, I won’t have too be vague in mentioning a few details of the movie based on a Stephen King novel. Like many others, I am saddened that Caan has passed away although at least he left us with many memorable performances. I’ve already reviewed some of his most famous work so I went with something new to me even if I couldn’t help but knowing various details due to cultural osmosis.

As nice a job as Bates did, Caan also deserves much credit for his performance. Much of the time he’s either sitting or bed-ridden and from what I understand, many A-list actors turned down the part-presumably because they thought the role made them look “weak.”

That’s unfortunate as it’s quite a struggle the character goes through so to me author Paul Sheldon is a strong character as he has to deal w/ what seems like a task as impossible as Sisyphus attempting to move that boulder up the mountain: being stuck in bed seriously injured being taken care of by a nurse who rescued him from a car wreck in a blizzard and is a huge fan of his romance novels but despite seeming to be a nice lady who doesn’t even use vulgarities, it’s quickly shown she has at least one form of untreated mental illness due to her violent outbursts--sorry for that epic run-on sentence. There is a subsequent battle of wills & words as Sheldon attempts to deal with someone with a fractured mind and just from body language & facial expressions he’s able to say a lot.

As an aside it’s a shame that some of Caan’s most famous work is not (legally) available for streaming, including Misery. I had to see this via less than ethical means; at least it’s available on 4K disc and it’s a movie worthy of rewatching… with the caveat that someone being held hostage is never an easy watch, this movie undoubtedly proving that correct.

Besides the performances of the two leads-who we see the majority of the time-the rest of the small cast is solid, including Lauren Bacall when she’s on screen for a few minutes. Solid direction from Rob Reiner and a story that is incredibly tense without falling into parody meant that picking this movie last night was a wise choice. As for the general message of this movie which is the dangers of fandom & obsession… that is seemingly more true now than then but I won’t provide any specific examples! It’d be best if I did so to avoid any possible outrage.