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Writer Paul Sheldon only wanted to finish his latest romance novel about a woman called Misery in his quiet cottage in the middle of nowhere, but two things get in his way: a snow blizzard, which causes his car to crash; and Annie Wilkes, a nurse who saves his life, but now keeps him locked up in her remote house in Silver Creek. Annie is a big fan of his novel series, but is angry that Paul killed off Misery in his last manuscript and demands he writes a new one. Since Paul has two broken legs and a broken arm, he is stuck there. A suspicious Sheriff drops by to check on Annie, but she kills him. Having partially recovered, Paul sets the manuscript on fire, and as Annie tries to extinguish it, he fights and kills her. Over a year later, Paul is back in New York and is recovering from trauma.
Do you want to be stressed out and worry? Then "Misery" is the right movie for you, but it just shows what an effective psychological horror-thriller it is, a one that is able to take a simple story about a woman nurturing a wounded writer at her home, and yet slowly, but constantly keep elevating the anxiety of suspense the longer the movie lasts. Kathy Bates is brilliant as the psychotic fan Annie Wilkes, who uses the ploy of saving Paul as an excuse to now take the right to own him, keep him hostage, torture him, and control his life, in a nightmarish scenario that is maybe even too effective in the end, when the viewers practically want to shout at the screen when they see her. Based on the eponymous novel by Stephen King, "Misery" is an unusual film for director Rob Reiner, but forms a part of his 8-year lucky streak in his career, between "This is Spinal Tap" and "A Few Good Men", when Reiner was on a row and made one critically recognized film after another, with a wide range of genres.
There are some comical bits here involving the Sheriff, played by Richard Farnsworth. When Paul's agent phones the Sheriff's office to inquire about Paul missing, she has this exchange with him: "I'd like to talk to the Silver Creek Chief of Police or Sheriff." - "Which one of them do you want?" - "Whichever one's not busy." - "Well, I'm pretty sure they're both not busy, since they're both me." While Sheriff is driving his police car, and his wife puts her hand on his knee, he goes: "Virginia, when you're in this car, you're not my wife, you're my deputy." However, the bitter suspense moments involving Annie-Paul clearly take the center stage, and Reiner is able to make the story gripping and engaging despite it being a chamber play consisting almost out of only two people. The sequence where Annie leaves in her car, so Paul is finally able to unlock the door and exit the bedroom on a wheelchair, kicks a ceramic penguin statue from the table, catches it, but inadvertently places it back on the table facing the opposite direction, which Annie later notices, is an exquisite detail. Several psychological analyses were made of Annie's personality, ranging from borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and psychopathic domination, while she can also be seen as a symbol for extremism and isolationism taking over, completely undermining reason, in this chilling Hitchcock variation.
Grade:+++
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