Amazon.com video review:
Based on the chilling bestseller by Stephen King, Misery was
brought
to the screen by director Rob Reiner as one of the most effective thrillers
of the 1990s. From a brilliant adaptation by screenwriter William Goldman,
Reiner turned King's cautionary tale of fame and idolatry into a mainstream
masterpiece of escalating suspense, translating King's own experience with
obsessive fans into a frightening tale of entrapment and psychotic
behavior. Kathy Bates deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance
as Annie Wilkes, an unbalanced devotee of romance novels written by Paul
Sheldon (James Caan), whose books provide Annie with a much-needed escape
from her pathetic life and her secret, violent past. After Annie rescues
the injured Sheldon from a car accident, she seizes the opportunity to
nurse her favorite writer back to health, but her tender loving care soon
turns to terrorism as she demands that Sheldon write his latest novel
according to her wish-fulfillment fantasies. From this point forward,
Misery percolates to a boil as equal parts mystery, thriller, and
cleverly dark comedy, with the helpless author pitched in deadly warfare
against his number one fan. While Bates carefully modulates her role from doting
kindness to sympathetic loneliness and finally to horrifying ferocity, Caan
is equally superb as the celebrated author who must literally write for his
life. It's essentially a two-actor film, but Richard Farnsworth and Lauren
Bacall are excellent in supporting roles as they investigate the writer's
mysterious disappearance. Frightening, funny, and totally irresistible,
Misery was such a hit that some of Bates's dialogue entered the
popular lexicon (particularly her nagging reference to Caan as "Mister
Man"), and its nail-biting thrills remain timelessly intense. --Jeff
Shannon
Amazon.com video review:
Based on the chilling bestseller by Stephen King, Misery was
brought
to the screen by director Rob Reiner as one of the most effective thrillers
of the 1990s. From a brilliant adaptation by screenwriter William Goldman,
Reiner turned King's cautionary tale of fame and idolatry into a mainstream
masterpiece of escalating suspense, translating King's own experience with
obsessive fans into a frightening tale of entrapment and psychotic
behavior. Kathy Bates deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance
as Annie Wilkes, an unbalanced devotee of romance novels written by Paul
Sheldon (James Caan), whose books provide Annie with a much-needed escape
from her pathetic life and her secret, violent past. After Annie rescues
the injured Sheldon from a car accident, she seizes the opportunity to
nurse her favorite writer back to health, but her tender loving care soon
turns to terrorism as she demands that Sheldon write his latest novel
according to her wish-fulfillment fantasies. From this point forward,
Misery percolates to a boil as equal parts mystery, thriller, and
cleverly dark comedy, with the helpless author pitched in deadly warfare
against his number one fan. While Bates carefully modulates her role from doting
kindness to sympathetic loneliness and finally to horrifying ferocity, Caan
is equally superb as the celebrated author who must literally write for his
life. It's essentially a two-actor film, but Richard Farnsworth and Lauren
Bacall are excellent in supporting roles as they investigate the writer's
mysterious disappearance. Frightening, funny, and totally irresistible,
Misery was such a hit that some of Bates's dialogue entered the
popular lexicon (particularly her nagging reference to Caan as "Mister
Man"), and its nail-biting thrills remain timelessly intense. --Jeff
Shannon
