Check Out the Trailer

Rob Reiner took on his second Stephen King story with this film, having made STAND BY ME, based on THE BODY, four years earlier. Unlike the previous coming of age tale, this one feels like a King story. Adapted brilliantly by legendary screenwriter William Goldman, the story is one that relies on its central performances. James Caan gave one of his career best performances and Kathy Bates made her star-making turn.

Paul Sheldon (Caan, THE GODFATHER) is a romance novelist who has ended his long-running “Misery” series and is finishing up a new novel. A man of ritual he checks into the same mountain hotel to finish his writing. Promptly checking out when he’s done, he ventures out into a snow storm and runs off the road. He’s saved from freezing to death by former nurse Annie Wilkes (Bates, PRIMARY COLORS), who happens to be his biggest fan.

Annie isn’t just a fan really. She lives for Paul’s “Misery” books. She nurses the writer back to health and is given a chance to read his new novel. Annie has problems with the language. No matter how mad she gets, she never uses fowl language. She’s excited when she gets her copy of the new “Misery” book, but she’s devastated when she learns that Paul has killed the character off. In a fit of rage, she forces Paul to write a new “Misery” novel, resurrecting her favorite literary character. Paul knows that Annie will never let him go, so he must use all his wits to find a way to escape.

Of course the performance that everyone remembers is Bates’s. She won an Oscar for crafting a truly unique psycho killer. The combination of her Pollyanna morals, fits of rage, delusions, and depression makes for an unsettling personality. She is completely unpredictable. But Bates needed someone her equal to play against. Caan makes Sheldon a complex character. He’s disgruntled with his career. He never expected Misery to take over his life. At first with Annie, he is legitimately grateful, finding her obsession with him and his work amusing. But he becomes disturbed with her first angry outburst over nothing. When he realizes that she isn’t going to let him leave, he becomes determined to manipulate her. But watch how he reacts toward the end, he hates her and it’s hard to hide.

I should also mention the small town police that are searching for the missing writer. Richard Farnsworth (THE STRAIGHT STORY) plays Sheriff Buster and Frances Sternhagen (THE MIST) is his deputy and wife, Virginia. They add a much needed dose of dry humor. But they’re also well drawn characters. Buster is a dogged professional, the opposite of an aged small town sheriff cliché. Virginia playfully gives him a hard time, especially when he’s all work and no play.

The pacing is built around the characters. For Sheldon, Misery has consumed his life and so it has for Annie. But Sheldon is desperately trying to get away from it and Annie painfully pulls him back into a story he wants to rid himself of. It’s the greatest existential nightmare for a successful writer. The things that brought him fame and fortune, his most popular stories and fans, are also the constant plague on his soul.

Support the Site

Buy “Misery” on DVD Here!

Support the Site

Buy “Misery” on Blu-ray Here!