Horrorfest 2010: Misery

And now the newest movie on the list so far, MISERY. I remember seeing parts of this one when my mom and sister rented it back when it first came out, but I can't say I ever watched the whole thing until now.

The first thing that's interesting is the opening credits -- it's a virtual who's who of Hollywood royalty! Rob Reiner, William Goldman, Stephen King, Kathy Bates, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth, Barry Sonnenfeld. Even Lauren Bacall is in this thing!

Next, I was blown away that the premise was set up so quickly. Caan is in Bates' house with broken legs within minutes. Now that's movie-making, folks. No bullshit.

Anyway, quick synopsis -- James Caan plays Stephen King's favorite kind of protagonist -- a writer. He's sick of writing sappy period piece romance novels (the "Misery" series) so he's killed off his heroine in the most recent book and moved on to write something really personal. For the first time, he's looking forward to publishing something he's proud of. Unfortunately, the day he finishes his new novel (which he wrote in a secluded mountain resort just like THE SHINING), he ends up in a blizzard induced car wreck.

Kathy Bates comes to his rescue, pries him out of his car, and takes him back to her secluded mountain house where she conveniently has the means to take care of his horribly broken legs (and other injuries) because she's an ex-nurse. As he comes to, she reveals that she's his number one fan, absolutely loves the "Misery" series, and plans to get him to the hospital and contact his agent and daughter as soon as the roads clear up and the phone lines are working again.

Only, it seems like there's always an excuse why the roads are still blocked and the phones are still down. Eventually, Bates' character becomes completely cracked when she realizes Caan has killed off her beloved literary heroine Misery, and sets about not only holding Caan hostage until he writes an appropriate new sequel bringing her back to life, but also inflicts both physical and mental torture on the man as she fluctuates wildly between a sweet natured, innocent and almost sympathetic personality and an unapologetic sadistic beast.

I say almost sympathetic because part of the genius of Bates' performance is the way she's able to telegraph the complete insanity of this woman even when she thinks she's acting normal. That's what's most frightening about this character, to me -- she's so out of touch that she doesn't even realize how transparent she is. She's so entrenched in the passive aggressive world of keeping up appearances that it doesn't occur to her that she might come off as odd to others. Sure, she pays lip service to some self awareness, claiming she realizes her temper tantrums probably have forced her into seclusion over the years, but as we near the end of the film we realizes she has a lot bigger problems than a quick temper, so even this acknowledgement comes off as totally deluded.

A lesser performer, I think, would have literally swung between nice and mean. I could see the same movie being made where it's much more about a split personality -- where the character is 100% perfect one minute, and 100% evil the next. This wouldn't be as believable to me, and the less believable it is, the less scary it is, in my opinion. So, again, that's why Bates is so good. When she's acting "sane" she's psycho, and when she's acting psycho, she's psycho. Kind of like Anthony Perkins in, well, PSYCHO.

The script uses little character details to underline this behavior, my favorite being Bates' character's aversion to swearing. She reads part of Caan's manuscript that he's so proud of and all she can do is say how disappointed she is in the language. Later, in other scenes, when she becomes enranged, she can't bring herself to use any actual profanities and instead uses half baked semi-polite substitutes like "Cock-a-doody." Not only is the contrast between someone willing to put another human through so much pain and someone who won't even say a bad word insane in and of itself, but it has the benefit of reminding us of people we actually meet in day to day life. There's something disturbing about those types, you know the ones -- who seem to care more about the moral implications of their appearance rather than the moral realities of their every day lives.

This is purely anecdotal, but I even met a guy once, who, without a hint of irony explained to me, "God doesn't care what you do. He only cares what you say."

I kind of apply to the other school of thought, the one that makes Atticus Finch such a good guy in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD -- he's the exact same guy out in public as he is behind closed doors.

But, I digress:

Even though the plot sounds pretty grim, what with all the hostage taking, torture and madness, the movie is also light enough to offer moments of comic relief and in fact is so slickly produced that it never quite reaches the heights of depravity that a lower budget production might go for. Richard Farnsworth, in particular, is good in his scenes as the local law enforcement, always effortlessly projecting friendly charm. Like most Stephen King works, there's enough quirkiness here to keep us out of the reach of cookie cutters.

Aside from Bates' performance, I guess the best thing about this movie is the way King is able to create a unique story from common nightmare elements shared by most everyone at some root level. There's the fear of doctors and medicine, the fear of an "evil mother" figure, the fear of pain itself. Caan is betrayed by the woman who at first seems to be taking care of him, and also betrayed by his own body which rages with pain at every escape attempt.

Overall, it's the fear of being helpless that is so expertly exploited in this movie. And when you're helpless you don't want Kathy Bates looming over your bed.