Misery

DVD Release Company: MGM / 20th Century Fox (http://www.mgm.com / 20th Century Fox)
Language: English
Length: 107 Minutes
Image: Color
Year: 1990
Rated: R (Violence and Language)
Release Date: Steptember 15, 2009

“I’m your number one fan, Paul.” – Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates)

MOVIE REVIEW

A movie that makes you think twice about becoming a celebrity; Misery delves into the mind and the world of an obsessively violent stalker. With interesting characters, a solid story, and a situation that makes you uncomfortable to the point that it hurts, one can say that the movie adaptation of the Stephen King novel does have the same take away dread feeling as it’s novel counterpart.

Famous novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) just finished his new book in the Misery series where he kills the Misery character off and for good. As he travels back to New York from his cabin in Colorado, an unsuspecting blizzard takes a turn for the worse, forcing Paul off the road and crashing his car into the piling snow. Saved by a former nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) who claims to be his number one fan, Paul can’t help but to thank his lucky stars for his gracious savior that is until he learns that Annie is a Misery obsessed stalker of the insane kind who won’t accept the fact that Misery is dead in his new book. Trapped inside Annie’s guest bedroom with two broken legs, he is forced to burn his work and rewrite it the way Annie wants him to or else.

You have to hand it to Rob Reiner. Only a handful of directors can actually pull off a Stephen King novel movie adaptation. He stands in the ranks of among other notable directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Frank Darabont but Reiner excludes himself with his own style. Actually, he is really a mixture of those two other examples. Reiner is atmospheric and isolated while also building upon characters, making them fascinating even if they’re not suppose to be. The sense of cold and harsh snowy weather in tone is reflected in the personality of that of Annie. She is can be serene like the idyllic winter scenery of Colorado’s snowy tops. She can also turn to ice and be as as nasty as the fiercest blizzard with her obsession and her rage, overpowering means and abilities to someone in a weakened state; this makes Annie the most dangerous person in the world for accident victim Paul Sheldon. We’re even given the obvious chance to catch on to how the weather affects Annie. She notes that when it rains outside, it gives her the blues. Reiner makes this connection so well between Annie and the surrounding atmosphere that it can be unintentionally ignored.

Expressionless insanity.

Some of the credit has to go to Kathy Bates too. Playing a very religious with a quirky sense of humor and, well, overall persona is a challenge but if done right and convincingly, it can be just as frightening because who knows if someone that acts overly delightful can act just as overly malicious. It’s bi-polarity at its scariest. Having Annie as a character with a nursing background is the topping on the fruitcake because a nurse is someone you entrust with your life. Kathy Bates performs Annie so well, that if you saw her in any other film you wouldn’t be able to help yourself but to typecast her as the deranged Annie Wilkes. Her fascination in the Misery character, in Paul Sheldon, and in her eager to love Paul and Misery at the same time while dealing with her own issues of depression and aggression makes the character genuinely believable.

Calm before the storm.

I don’t want to pass up on James Caan either. Numerous A-list celebrity male actors have passed up on such a shadowed, yet a role of determination and survival that I have to give a slow clap ovation to James Caan. The character of Paul Sheldon comes off as weak; he is a famed writer looking for that motivation to push himself beyond cheesy romance novels. If you look closely at Paul Sheldon, you see a man with unlimited strength, a man that doesn’t panic in the wrath of Annie, and a man that is calm and collect when the opportune time to escape or to foil Annie’s intentions come about. The middle really stands out to me. I want to compare to other films where a person is trapped in a home and freaks out, foolishly and clumsily tries to escape the abode with little to no common sense. Those types of films are a dime a dozen. Paul Sheldon must try to escape by means of a wheelchair and does it with such newly found calamity and such deep calmness that it delivers a more heart pounding situation, leaving you salivating on the thought of him being caught and what will become of him. I don’t think anyone else could have conveyed that better than veteran actor James Caan. He is a bit smug in his deliveries and that adds a bit more to his character, I think, in trying to build an emotionless wall against Annie. We see more of his smugness later on in the movie as his situation becomes more dire and hopeless.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, Reiner makes the smaller characters more interesting than they usually are portrayed in other films. Buster, the town sheriff, is one of those characters. He is built up so much that you start to like the guy. He’s smart and playfully sarcastic, especially with his wife who is just as equal in manner. This was one of Richard Farnsworth’s last major roles and I don’t think there could have been a better actor to really make Buster as interesting as Farnsworth made him. I could very well look at Buster and cast him off as a character I wouldn’t give two thoughts about. Thanks to Farnsworth and Reiner, we are given a third character to have feelings toward.

Misery can get a bit bloody.

The overall review of Misery is off the charts. This is a solid story that doesn’t miss a beat or have any hiccups. There are no flaws present. It is a well made novel adaptation which is rare, especially for a Stephen King novel adaptation because there are so many mediocre and terrible ones out there already. This film doesn’t leave much to imagination but with its minimalistic effects, that isn’t an issue. You would want to see everything that could be possibly be shown because if you hide too much for the imagination in a contained film like Misery, it’ll be too bland and could possibly be a snore of a film.

BLU-RAY REVIEW

The image transfer is the best I’ve seen for Misery. The 1080p really brings out the colors of the rural scenery and really puts the wrinkles on the faces. The lossless audio is, well, kind of soft. A bit disappointing but at moments of struggle, it giddy ups into an explosion of sounds. I’m also at a loss of words for the menu and the cover art. For a Blu-ray menu, it is kind of dull. It isn’t animated and it just wreaks of unimaginative creativity. The cover art is a bit lame as well as it is just the same cover art used for the anniversary DVD edition.

At this point in the review, I would talk about the special features. Unfortunately, I can’t. It isn’t because this release doesn’t come with extras because it definitely does but this is a Blu-ray review, not a DVD review and that is what the extras are in – the DVD format. The second disc is the DVD special features from the anniversary edition as well. Why couldn’t they be transferred into Blu-ray format? Was it cheaper this way? Was it just pure laziness? It is disconcerting to think because I don’t want future releases to have the same fate.

The overall Blu-ray release of Misery is very low. With no extras to review on the Blu-ray, unattractive menu and cover art, and lackluster audio, I have determined that this is to be a poor presentation of such a great movie with a beautiful image transfer. I wish I could be just pleased with the movie alone but I can not defy my principles as a home entertainment media reviewer.