"Passion is a positive obsession. Obsession is a negative passion."
People can get obsessed with romance, they can get obsessed with political paranoia, they can get obsessed with horror. It’s isn’t the fault of the subject matter that creates the obsession, I don’t think.
Directed by Rob Reiner and based on Stephen King’s novel by the same name, Misery(1990) tells us the hypnotic tale of Paul Sheldon(portrayed by James Caan), the author of a series of romantic novels whose protoganist is called’Misery.’ Paul is tired of writing the’Misery’ series of books and desires a change. He retires the title character of the books called’Misery Chastain’ by portraying that she died during childbirth in the last novel of the series. He has spent his immediate past holed up at a winter lodge in Colorado, where he had worked on his next book, a deviation from the successful Misery series.
Having finished the new novel, Paul sets off on a drive to return home during a blizzard and meets with a car accident. Lying helpless because of two broken legs and a dislocated shoulder, he is soon rescued by a woman out of his misery(pun intended!).
Her name is Annie Wilkes(Kathy Bates in an Oscar winning performance) and she is the self-proclaimed "Number One Fan" of Paul Sheldon’s novels. She takes Paul to her isolated home nearby. Annie is a big woman by size and is mostly seen wearing shapeless and unflattering outfits. She states that she is a nurse by profession and then takes up the role of caretaker for the injured author. She changes his clothes, feeds him and generally is very servile while letting him know every chance she gets that she is in fact his "Number One Fan." We get the idea that Annie is an abandoned woman who deals with her loneliness by reading Paul’s novels. During this rehabilitation, Paul however wants to contact the outside world to let friends know about his current condition, but he is told that the entire town is snowbound with no communications what so ever and that all the roads are closed. She even tells him that the telephone lines are all out and so no calls can be placed. Days pass this way with no changes to the telephone conditions and Paul gets restless.
After obtaining Paul’s permission to read the newly finished script for his next novel, Annie reads it and the Good Samaritan act comes to an end. In the following encounter she yells at Paul for the swearing and vulgarity of words used in his new book and her aversion to any kind of profanity strikes Paul as odd. He also realizes that despite the improved weather, Annie has not taken him to a hospital or allowed him phone calls.
Meanwhile, the last novel of the Misery series releases in book stores and Annie, being the fan that she is, gets a copy home. Having read the book he gets enraged that the character called Misery Chastain died in the course of the novel. The psychotic traits of her character, so far dormant, come to the surface at this point. In a scene where she gets progressively weirder, she demands the author to write another novel and somehow bring Misery Chastain back to life.
"You did it! You did it! You murdered my Misery!" she screams.
And then "I thought you were good, Paul. But you’re not good. You’re just another lying old dirty birdie."* *
She also orders him to burn the manuscript of his new novel. Reluctantly, Paul agrees seeing that he has no other choice in the given circumstances. After every few pages of the book that he puts together Annie takes the role of a critic, reads and gives him notes on what she thinks of the progress. Annie’s malevolent nature and her dark and weird mindset are brilliantly portrayed by Bates. Paul by now knows that all is not well with Annie in whose tight grip he is virtually a prisoner and also suspects that she is capable of violence.
On one occasion when Annie steps out of the house, Paul manages to get out of the room in which he is trapped and explore the surroundings. In the process he discovers that the telephone lines have been disabled purposefully to prevent him from contacting anyone and then he understands the graveness of his situation and returns to his room as if nothing happened. The utter sense of isolation and fear are emoted well by Caan.
Unfortunately however, due to a small indiscretion by Paul, Annie upon return finds out that he had been outside of the room in which she holds him captive. This pushes her further into the depths of madness and in a some times pathetic, some times violent manner she tells Paul that she is afraid that he will leave her as soon as he is fully recovered. Paul tries to convince her that he would in fact stay with her and not leave but in vain.
She tells him about the early days at the Kimberley diamond mines and what they did to the native workers who stole diamonds. Then she explains that killing them would have been equivalent to "junking a Mercedes just because it had a broken spring." Also, they had to make sure they could go on working.and then she describes to him a procedure called "hobbling." The method is to break off of the legs at the ankle, resulting in legs with no feet. In an utterly horrific scene, she uses a wooden block and a sledge hammer to hobble Paul’s feet.
Meanwhile, the town’s sheriff(Richard Farnsworth) and his wife(Frances Sternhagen), who were informed by Paul’s agent about his sudden disappearance, are busy trying to figure out where he might be. As far as I can remember these are the only other actors in the movie apart from the main characters.
Soon after, Paul desperately plots an escape and comes up with the idea of poisoning Annie with the painkillers she has been giving him. However, during the seemingly romantic dinner that he suggests they have, Annie suspects some thing is wrong and does not sip the wine into which he had mixed the painkillers. His plan for escape thus failed does what other possibilities exist for Paul? What does he end up as? Free or prisoner? Rent and watch the movie to find out. Let me know how you like it.
Kathy Bates deservedly won an Academy award for her role in this movie. She portrayed the alternating shades of this complex character with finesse. James Caan is brilliant in a role that is quite unconventional. This is possibly the best of all on-screen adaptations of Stephen King’s novels.
Needless to say, this movie is worth watching. Please watch it if you haven’t already. But before you go leave me your comments.