Misery (film)
Misery | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Rob Reiner |
Screenplay by | William Goldman |
Based on | Misery by Stephen King |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Barry Sonnenfeld |
Edited by | Robert Leighton |
Music by | Marc Shaiman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 107 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $20 million[2] |
Box office | $61.3 million[3] |
Misery is a 1990 American psychological thriller film directed by Rob Reiner, based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name, starring James Caan, Kathy Bates, Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances Sternhagen about an obsessive fan who holds an author captive and forces him to write a story.
The film was released in the United States on November 30, 1990, by Columbia Pictures. It received highly positive reviews and was a box office success. Bates' performance drew widespread praise from critics and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 63rd Academy Awards, making Misery the only film based on a Stephen King novel to win an Oscar.[4] King himself has stated that Misery is one of his top ten favorite film adaptations.[5]
Plot
Famed novelist Paul Sheldon is the author of a successful series of Victorian romance novels featuring a character named Misery Chastain. Wanting to focus on more serious stories, he writes a manuscript for a new novel that he hopes will launch his post-Misery career. While traveling from Silver Creek, Colorado to his home in New York City, Paul is caught in a blizzard and gets into an accident, rendering him unconscious. A nurse named Annie Wilkes finds him and brings him to her remote home.
Paul regains consciousness and finds himself bedridden with broken legs and a dislocated shoulder. Annie claims to be his "number one fan" and talks at length about him and his novels. Out of gratitude, Paul lets her read his new manuscript. She is angered by the profanity in his new work, disturbing him, but apologizes. When she reads the latest Misery novel and discovers that Misery dies at the end, she flies into a rage, revealing to Paul that nobody knows where he is.
Annie forces Paul to burn the only copy of his new manuscript. When he is well enough to get out of bed, she forces him to begin writing a new novel titled Misery's Return, in which he brings the character back to life. One day, when Annie is away, Paul begins stockpiling his painkillers. He tries poisoning Annie during dinner by spiking her wine with crushed painkillers but fails after she accidentally knocks over her glass. He later finds a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Annie's past. Annie was tried for the deaths of several infants in the hospital where she worked, but the trial collapsed due to lack of evidence. Annie had quoted lines from his Misery novels during her trial. When Annie discovers that Paul has been sneaking out of his room, she breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer to prevent him from escaping again.
The local sheriff, Buster, is investigating Paul's disappearance. Clues lead him to pay Annie a visit but she fatally shoots him when he finds Paul drugged in the basement; she then attempts to kill Paul in a murder-suicide, but Paul, concealing a can of lighter fluid in his pocket, convinces her to let him live long enough to finish the novel in order to "give Misery back to the world."
When the manuscript is done, Paul asks for a cigarette and champagne, to which Annie complies. When she returns, he sets the manuscript on fire. As Annie rushes to save it, Paul strikes her with the typewriter and they engage in a violent struggle, with Paul suffering a gunshot wound to the shoulder from her revolver. He trips her, causing her to hit her head on the typewriter, then crawls out of the room, but Annie attacks again. Paul grabs a metal doorstop and bashes her in the face, finally killing her.
Eighteen months later, Paul, now walking with a cane, meets his agent, Marcia, in a restaurant in New York City. The two discuss his first post-Misery novel, and Marcia tells him about the positive early buzz. Paul replies that he wrote the novel for himself as a way to help deal with the horrors of his captivity. Marcia asks if he would consider a non-fiction book about his captivity, but Paul—who suffers psychological trauma from the experience—declines. Paul then sees Annie approaching him, only to realize that he is hallucinating. In actuality, the figure he sees is a waitress, who tells Paul that she is his number one fan, causing Paul to meekly reply "That's very sweet of you."
Cast
- James Caan as Paul Sheldon
- Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes
- Richard Farnsworth as Sheriff Buster
- Frances Sternhagen as Deputy Virginia
- Lauren Bacall as Marcia Sindell
- Graham Jarvis as Libby
- Jerry Potter as Pete
J. T. Walsh makes an uncredited cameo appearance as State Trooper Sherman Douglas.[6] Director Rob Reiner also makes an uncredited appearance as a helicopter pilot.[6][7]
Production
Producer Andrew Scheinman read Stephen King's novel Misery on an airplane, and later recommended it to his director partner at Castle Rock Entertainment, Rob Reiner. Reiner eventually invited writer William Goldman to write the film's screenplay.[8]
In the original novel, Annie Wilkes severs one of Paul Sheldon's feet with an axe. Goldman loved the scene and argued for it to be included, but Reiner insisted that it be changed so that she only breaks his ankles. Goldman subsequently wrote that this was the correct decision as the visual depiction of an amputation would cause the audience to hate Annie instead of sympathizing with her madness.[9]
The part of Paul Sheldon was originally offered to William Hurt (twice), then Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, and Robert Redford, but they all turned it down.[10] Warren Beatty was interested in the role, wanting to turn him into a less passive character,[11] but eventually had to drop out as post-production of Dick Tracy extended. Eventually someone suggested James Caan, who agreed to play the part. Caan commented that he was attracted by how Sheldon was a role unlike any of his others, and that "being a totally reactionary character is really much tougher."[12] Anjelica Huston and Bette Midler were both offered the role of Annie Wilkes, but both of them turned it down.[13] Midler would later say her decision to turn down the role was stupid.[14] According to Reiner, it was Goldman who suggested that Kathy Bates, then unknown, should portray Annie Wilkes.[15]
Music
Misery | |
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Film score by | |
Released | July 1, 1991 |
Genre | Soundtrack |
Length | 29:55 |
Label | Bay Cities |
The film's score was composed by Marc Shaiman.[citation needed] Three recordings by Liberace, Annie Wilkes's favorite musician, are featured in the film, as is "Shotgun" by Junior Walker and the All-Stars, which plays before Paul's car accident.[citation needed]
Release
Misery grossed $10,076,834 on its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office behind Home Alone.[16] It eventually finished with $61 million domestically.[2]
Reception
![Actress Kathy Bates at the Giffoni Film Festival](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Kathy_Bates_2006.jpg/170px-Kathy_Bates_2006.jpg)
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Misery has an approval rating of 90% based on 68 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Elevated by standout performances from James Caan and Kathy Bates, this taut and frightening film is one of the best Stephen King adaptations to date."[17] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating to reviews, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.[19]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a rating of three stars out of four, stating that "it is a good story, a natural, and it grabs us."[20] Variety called it "a very obvious and very commercial gothic thriller, a functional adaptation of the Stephen King bestseller."[21] Derek Malcolm of The Guardian gave it a positive review, writing that it "plays enough tricks on us so that we don't ever treat anything quite seriously and Goldman's script has enough good lines and situations to keep one interested in exactly what is coming next." and praised the cast, especially Bates, writing that her "demented devotee in Misery is inspired casting."[22] Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised Kathy Bates' performance, calling it "a genuinely funny performance as the mad Annie, as gaudily written in Mr. Goldman's screenplay as it is in Mr. King's novel."[23]
King himself has stated that Misery is one of his top ten favorite film adaptations, in his 2009 collection Stephen King Goes to the Movies.[5] In his 2000 memoir called On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, King references the movie adaptation of the book, saying:
In the early 1980s, my wife and I went to London on a combined business/pleasure trip. I fell asleep on the plane and had a dream about a popular writer (it may or may not have been me, but it sure to God wasn't James Caan)...[24]
In 2003, Annie Wilkes was ranked #17 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains list.[25]
The "hobbling" scene in the film, in which Annie breaks Paul's ankles with a sledgehammer, was ranked #12 on Bravo's 2004 program The 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[26][better source needed]
In 2009, Chris Eggertsen of Bloody Disgusting ranked Misery fourth place in his list of "10 Claustrophobic Horror Films".[27]
Awards and nominations
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
---|---|---|---|
20/20 Awards | Best Actress | Kathy Bates | Won |
Best Supporting Actor | Richard Farnsworth | Nominated | |
Best Film Editing | Robert Leighton | Nominated | |
Academy Awards[28] | Best Actress | Kathy Bates | Won |
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards[29] | Best Actress | Won | |
Most Promising Actress | Nominated | ||
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actress | Won | |
Golden Globe Awards[30] | Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama | Won | |
New York Film Critics Circle Awards[31] | Best Actress | Nominated | |
Saturn Awards | Best Horror Film | Nominated | |
Best Actor | James Caan | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Kathy Bates | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Frances Sternhagen | Nominated | |
Best Writing | William Goldman | Nominated | |
USC Scripter Awards[32] | William Goldman (screenwriter); Stephen King (author) | Nominated |
Home media
Nelson Entertainment and its parent company, New Line Home Video first released Misery on VHS on July 11, 1991, and New Line re-released it in 1992, after Nelson went bankrupt. The film was later re-released on VHS again by PolyGram Video and on DVD on December 22, 1998 by MGM Home Entertainment. A 25th anniversary edition DVD and Blu-ray was released on September 8, 2015 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM Home Entertainment. Currently, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (under the license from MGM) re-prints the film for home video.[33] The Shout! Factory released a collector's edition Blu-ray under their Scream Factory label on November 28, 2017. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was released through Kino Lorber on October 12, 2021.[34]
References
- ^ "MISERY (18)". British Board of Film Classification. January 7, 1991. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
- ^ a b Box Office Information for Misery. The Wrap. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
- ^ Misery at Box Office Mojo
- ^ "The Best and Worst of Stephen King's Movies – MSN Movies News". Movies.msn.com. October 20, 2012. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Stephen King, Stephen King Goes to the Movies, page 579 (Hodder & Stoughton, 2009). ISBN 978-0-340-98030-9
- ^ a b Van Heerden, Bill (2008). Film and Television In-Jokes: Nearly 2,000 Intentional References, Parodies, Allusions, Personal Touches, Cameos, Spoof and Homages. McFarland & Company. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-7864-3894-5.
- ^ Cripps, Charlotte (November 22, 2019). "The 21 best cameos in film, from Stanley Kubrick to Quentin Tarantino". The Independent. Retrieved June 8, 2021.
- ^ Goldman, William. Which Lie Did I Tell?, p. 37
- ^ Goldman p 40
- ^ Goldman p 42-44
- ^ Goldstein, Patrick (April 29, 1990). "Rob Reiner Takes On 'Misery' : The director follows his hit comedy 'When Harry Met Sally . . . ' with a chiller, his second film taken from a Stephen King novel – Page 2 – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
- ^ Finke, Nikki (November 29, 1990). "James Caan Enjoying His 'Misery' : Hollywood's Reputed Bad Boy Resurfaces in the Rob Reiner-Directed Psychological Thriller – Page 2 – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
- ^ "Anjelica Huston Reveals She Turned Down Kathy Bates' Role in Misery | PEOPLE.com".
- ^ Healy, Patrick (10 April 2013). "After Years of Playing Bette, Another Role". The New York Times.
- ^ "YouTube". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2006-09-21. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
- ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for November 30 – December 2, 1990". Box Office Mojo. December 2, 1990. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
- ^ Misery at Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ "Misery reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
- ^ "CinemaScore". Archived from the original on 1999-11-27. Retrieved 2021-05-10.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (November 30, 1990). "Misery movie review & film summary (1990)". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on April 14, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2009.
- ^ "Misery". Variety. December 31, 1990.
- ^ Malcolm, Derek (May 9, 1991). "Stephen King's Misery on the big screen – archive, 1991 | Film | The Guardian". theguardian.com.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (November 30, 1990). "A Writer Who Really Suffers". The New York Times: C1.
- ^ Stephen King, On Writing, page 165 (Simon & Schuster, 2000). ISBN 978-1-4391-5681-0
- ^ "AFI's 100 Greatest Heroes & Villains". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
- ^ "Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments". listology.com. Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
- ^ Eggertsen, Chris (October 20, 2009). "A Look at the Top 10 Claustrophobic Horror Movies!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
- ^ "The 63rd Academy Awards (1991) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- ^ "1988-2013 Award Winner Archives". Chicago Film Critics Association. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
- ^ "Misery – Golden Globes". HFPA. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
- ^ "1990 New York Film Critics Circle Awards". Mubi. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ "Past Scripter Awards". USC Scripter Award. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
- ^ "Misery". StephenKing.com.
- ^ John Squires (July 20, 2021). "Kino Lorber Bringing Rob Reiner's 'Misery' to 4K Ultra HD for Halloween". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Misery at IMDb
- Misery at Box Office Mojo
- Misery at Rotten Tomatoes
- Misery at Metacritic
- 1990 films
- 1990 horror films
- 1990s psychological thriller films
- American horror thriller films
- American psychological horror films
- American films
- American psychological thriller films
- Castle Rock Entertainment films
- Columbia Pictures films
- English-language films
- Films about fandom
- Films about kidnapping
- Films about nurses
- Films about psychopaths
- Films about missing people
- Films about writers
- Films based on American horror novels
- Films based on works by Stephen King
- Films directed by Rob Reiner
- Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award-winning performance
- Films featuring a Best Drama Actress Golden Globe-winning performance
- Films set in Colorado
- Films scored by Marc Shaiman
- Films with screenplays by William Goldman
- Two-handers