MiseryDiscographies Movies Reviews
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. On The DVD Back A "heart-stopping psychological thriller" (Joel Siegal), this Academy Award-winning film is "one of the best horror movies" (Time) ever. Adapted from a Stephen King novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (All The President's Men) and directed by Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men), this chiller starring Kathy Bates (Titanic) and James Caan (The Godfather) is "a Hitchcockian kind of cat-and-mouse" (The New York Times) game played between two cunning minds - one as sharp as a tack and the other as blunt as a sledgehammer. Novelist Paul Sheldon (Caan) doesn't remember the blinding blizzard that sent his car spinning off the road. Nor does he remember being nursed back from unconsciousness. All he remembers is waking up in the home of Annie Wilkes (Bates) - a maniacal fan who is bent on keeping her favorite writer as her personal prisoner...for the rest of his 'cock-a-doodie' life! DVD Scene Selections
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