Misery

Another of the more recent movies that I had the chance to record thanks to it showing up in HBO/Cinemax free preview at the end of last month is Misery. I suppose you could say it's not all that recent since it's over 30 years old, and I even saw it when I was in college back in the early 90s. But I recorded it since I saw that it was going to be on multiple times and hadn't blogged about it before. The next airing is tomorrow, Oct. 3, at 6:02 PM on Action Max, with more airings coming up during the week.

James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, author of a popular series of romance novels featuring a character named Misery. He's just finished his newest book, although it's something he wanted to write and not part of the Misery series. Sheldon is one of those superstitious writers who does everything in a particular way. For him, this means going from New York to a secluded mountain resort in Colorado to write; after finishing, he has one cigarette and a glass of Dom Perignon. Then he sets off down the mountain to get back to civilization.

Unfortunately, as he starts off on his journey this time, a blizzard comes in. Driving in the snow can be tough enough, but trying to do it on a twisty mountain road in a 25-year-old car that doesn't have the latest and greatest safety equipment is much more nerve-wracking. As you can probably guess, Sheldon's car goes off the road and into a deep ravine. This being a snowy mountain road, there's a good chance that he won't be found until the spring, if the animals don't get to him first.

However, there is somebody not far down the road, one Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who is even a nurse and has a stash of medical equipment at her house since she lives in the middle of nowhere outside of town. On top of that, she recognizes Paul, since she claims to be his #1 fan, although I'm sure a bunch of people would make the same claim. But she makes certain the local general store owner saves the first copy of the newest Misery book for her.

So while Paul is convalescing, having broken both his legs, Annie reads the latest Misery book that has just come out. What she doesn't realize until she gets to the end is that it's going to be the last book in the series, since Paul has decided to kill Misery off, wanting to write the sort of books he wants instead of what his readers think he should write. Big mistake.

Annie is absolutely pissed that Paul killed off Misery. Worse, she's deranged, having been accused in any number of wrongful deaths at various hospitals -- death seems to follow her wherever she goes, and she's got a scrapbook of all the newspaper stories about it. So Annie decides that she's going to destroy Paul's latest manuscript, which she knows is the only copy -- there's that superstition again -- and force Paul to write a new Misery novel in which Misery absolutely lives. Further, she's going to hold Paul hostage until he does it, since nobody is going to find him until the spring what with the car under all that snow.

Or maybe not so much. The local sheriff covers the are in a helicopter, and the eventually do find Paul's 1965 Mustang, only without him in it for obvious reasons. The sheriff is also smart enough to figure out that the door has been pried open from the outside, which means somebody else must have shown up to get Paul rather than Paul dying out in the elements. The sheriff, understandably, doesn't yet know who might be responsible for all of this.

Paul, meanwhile, doesn't want to be subjected to torture, and wants to figure out a way to get out of his predicament. Part of this involves buying time by writing that Misery book that Annie wants him to write. But at some point he has to finish the book. And the sheriff is bount to put two and two together to figure out Annie's involvement in the case.

As I said at the beginning, I had seen Misery many years ago, but I don't think I'd seen it recently, certainly not in the time that I've been doing the blog. I was surprised at how well I remembered the movie compared to some other movies. But that's because of how good a movie Misery is. There's some definite foreshadowing that's a bit more obvious the second time you watch the movie, but the suspense works, while Bates is excellent as Annie Wilkes. This time around, however, I found myself wondering about the realism of the writing process, as though a writer can just write a novel straight through, without a whole bunch of outlining first and editing along the way.

But that's just a minor quibble. If you want an entertaining suspense movie, Misery is certainly worth the watch.