2017 has been a good year for Stephen King. “The Mist” television series had come and
went, The Dark Tower was an idea that
should’ve been taken care of more sufficiently, ”Mr. Mercedes” has been going
strong on AT&T’s Audience Network, the great It is captivating audiences in theaters (with the second chapter set
to be released in 2019), there’s a Netflix original coming up based on King’s
short story, “1922,” and an interesting TV series has been announced for 2018
called “Castle Rock.” Along with his
adaptations going strong, King has been killing it with his criticisms of
Donald Trump on Twitter, even getting himself blocked by the POTUS, which gives
King that much approbation in my opinion.
Who’d have thought that Stephen King would still be relevant
in today’s bevy of horror films?
Although I think King has heaps of stories that can be easily adapted to
the screen, it would have seemed audiences today wouldn’t enjoy the types of
stories he has churned out over the years, choosing to see these cheap
jump-scare, teenie-bopper flicks. But It has proven audiences are smarter than
that and choose to see something more than a scare fest—they truly do want to
see something much deeper and meaningful.
With all that said, cinema and network television are not
the only forms of media to see these worthy films. The advent of Netflix Originals is what’s
taking the world by storm, rolling out a well-rounded cluster of films and
on-going series (which have seasons released all at once). With already a multitude of Marvel Studios
superhero series earning high praise, there have also been some strong
docu-dramas and full-length movies receiving the same acclaim. Continuing that strong current of films is
the Stephen King adaptation of his 1992 novel of the same name, Gerald’s
Game.
Let me synopsize…
Trying to rekindle their marriage, Jessie and Gerald
Burlingame (Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood) take a drive out to their remote
lake house, planning to spend a few days by themselves. Attempting to spice up their sex life, Gerald
decides to handcuff Jessie to their bed frame, but she has second thoughts
about it when he gets too far into their role-playing. However, when Gerald dies unexpectedly of an
apparent heart attack, Jessie must fight to survive as she’s still handcuffed
to the bed.
The announcement of this film took me by surprise a bit, for
I hadn’t heard anything about it besides the little tidbit of info a few years
ago where some movie article mentioned it might be made into a movie. Knowing the source material, I really didn’t
think it’d make a good movie, maybe even being perceived as boring if
filmmakers tried to adapt it.
Here in this Netflix film, released on September 29th
of this year, the story is set up well enough, modernizing it for today’s
audiences and making it believable for everyone to suspend disbelief. For instance, would a couple just leave their
front door wide open when going inside to start a bit of intimacy? Maybe, I guess…if you know there isn’t a soul
around for miles and miles. But there
aren’t too many other scenes where you’d sit there and say, “I can’t believe
that can happen!” The story gets going
right away, with Gugino’s character stuck in her predicament, her husband dead
at the foot of the bed, all with her mind playing tricks as she slowly starts
to unravel while trying to find a way to save herself.
Without giving away too much, I felt the technique of
bringing second images of Jessie and Gerald to life as sort of the two sides of
her conscience was a lot better than the idea of just having a voiceover to
hear her thoughts, which is mainly what you’d read in King’s novel—that works
in a book, but not so much in a movie.
Jessie remembering her childhood in the form of flashbacks helped with
her character’s development and I found the story interesting as well.
With the flashback scenes diving into Jessie’s past, it gave
the story added depth as it had with the novel.
It explained Jessie’s weakness in how she’d gotten herself in the
situation she was in as well as helping her overcome it. Additionally, these scenes takes us away from
the boring claustrophobic atmosphere some audiences may think of when the story
takes place in a small setting the whole time.
Director Mike Flanagan does a fine job of helming this
feature, as well as presenting it to us as a true adaptation. Flanagan co-wrote the script with Jeff Howard
and did the right thing by not deviating too far from the source material. In fact, the only variations I’d noticed in
the story is the modernization of certain aspects, such as cell phones and the
inclusion of Viagra. Other than that,
everything here is taken straight from the book.
Back to the dual roles of each main actor, having them play
the two sides to Jessie’s conscience really needed two people with great acting
chops. Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood
fill those roles perfectly, showing us what the imprisoned Jessie is thinking
and planning, as well as giving her ideas on how to cope with her situation in
both good and bad ways. They come across
as the angel and devil on Jessie’s shoulders, which was pretty ingenious on the
filmmakers’ parts.
Although the story isn’t really your typical horror
narrative, there’s still an aspect of fear that leads the audience to feel that
way. Not only does our main character
have the trepidation of her circumstances, but she also has to contend with a
hungry stray dog that keeps showing up to feed (remember, the front door was
left wide open) and the hallucination (or existence) of a terrifying visitor
called The Moonlight Man (Carel Struycken).
All of this adds to the dreadful atmosphere to give Jessie the need to
get out of handcuffs.
As a side note, those who get squeamish when viewing gory
effects may want to turn away from the screen occasionally—especially during
the climax at the lake house. But—Who
knows?—the story may be a life lesson to those who may be stuck in this
situation where they find themselves handcuffed to bed posts and need to get
themselves out.
So…what’s my final “bit” on Gerald’s Game?
From start to finish, I was engrossed and taken back to the
days when I was reading this book. The
acting from both Gugino and Greenwood were great, giving just the right balance
needed between the two. In fact, it was
more understandable on how everything went down than what had transpired in the
book, particularly the feelings the characters had for one another. The night scenes that Gugino’s character had
to go through were spooky and a bit terrifying, especially when you put
yourself in her situation. The only part
of the film that let me down was the conclusion of the story, which seemed out
of place and almost felt like it was tacked on as an afterthought. But, as a whole, I loved this movie and felt
it was worthy to be called a true Stephen King adaptation. If you’ve got the Netflix streaming service,
please take a look at this film—you won’t be disappointed.
Thanks for reading.
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