the verdict : spine-chilling drama from horror maestro stephen king , featuring an outstanding , oscar-winning performance from kathy bates . geez , french and saunders had a field day when they set to work on parodying this ! sorry , non-british readers may not be familiar with french and saunders - my apologies . the pair are british comediennes ( jennifer saunders later went on to become edina monsoon in " absolutely fabulous " ) , who did a series of film spoofs a few years back , including alien , the exorcist and misery . needless to say , amidst her chucklesome impersonation of kathy bates ( the resemblance was quite uncanny ! ) , dawn french got pretty nasty with her sledgehammer when in reach of jennifer saunder's legs ! but despite the lingering memory of their sketch , and although i've now seen the film a couple of times now , that " hobbling " scene was no less disturbing ! i'm still left screaming at the telly in revulsion ! that may be the most memorable scene , but it's certainly not the only worth watching . stephen king , whose film and tv adaptations tend to vary in quality , strikes gold with this simple yet strikingly compelling tale . it's a nicely crafted psychological horror , which effortlessly succeeds in drawing you into the plight of writer phil sheldon ( james caan ) . rescued from a car accident by annie wilkes ( bates ) , who introduces herself as the writer's " number one fan " , he soon becomes her prisoner . both the script and kathy bates' beautifully masterful performance ( for which she won an oscar ) work arm-in-arm as we quickly begin to realise that beyond her bubbly exterior the woman is basically as nutty as a fruit-cake ( or is that fruity as a nut-cake ? ) . bates relishes her demanding role , and her performance is nothing short of a masterpiece . at times she seems like an innocent victim of her own obsessive behaviour , at times she's a rather tragic character , and more often than not she's just damned scary ! this is basically a very simple tale , but it achieves a large degree of eloquence in its simplicity . it's an involving , engrossing experience - and considering it's basically a two-hander , mainly set in one locale , it's a remarkable piece of cinema . there are no jazzy special effects or cheesy action sequences - this one relies solely upon rob reiner's stylish directing and the wonderful performances of bates and caan . oh , i haven't really mentioned caan yet - he does a good job as the writer who's a prisoner of his own success ( annie is obsessed with him and his books ) . but , as you no doubt gathered from the above - bates is well and truly the star of the show . along with the pig , of course ! anyway , the tension is built-up with masterful aplomb , and some scenes are almost agonisingly tense . there's the dinner scene where seldon goes to nerve-shattering lengths to poison her wine . he succeeds , but . . . she knocks the glass over ! i bet you threw a pillow at the screen as well ! in the immortal words of homer j . simpson - " d'oh ! ! " other nerve-wracking scenes include the bit where annie has gone off to town and sheldon starts snooping around the house . we cut to annie in her car - she's on her way home . . . he realises this and tries to get back to his room . . . cut to the car again , she's getting near . . . will he make it ? ok , so these sequences aren't exactly original , nor perhaps unpredictable - but they work ! boy , do they work ! if a film has you on the edge of your couch , biting your nails and shouting at the screen in suspense , then it's doing something right ! of course , the most nauseating sequence is the aforementioned " hobbling " ! annie realises her captive has been out of his room , and she's going to stop him once and for all . cue a block of wood placed strategically between his ankles and a huge sledgehammer , and . . . i feel ill just thinking about it ! nasty . it all builds up nicely to the final scene where sheldon finally gets the upper hand , and once and for all tries to kill the crazy psycho ! and then we're given one of the most ridiculously over-the-top fight scenes i've ever seen . she gets hit over the head with a typewriter , set on fire , head smashed against the wall - and she just won't die ! sheldon isn't in terribly good shape either . if it weren't so gorey it would almost be laughable . but it's a terrifically effective film , and therefore the daft climax is easily overlooked . misery is a tight , tense , intense and chillingly entertaining thriller . the directing is first-rate , and the performances - bates in particular - contribute to making this a suitably nightmarish little gem . wonderful stuff . ? - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - for more regularly-updated film and tv reviews , check out my site ! http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/bungalow/4960 - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
