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| James
Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen,
Lauren Bacall |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates):
Anything else I can get for you while I am in town? How about a
tiny tape recorder, or how about a homemade pair of writing slippers?
Paul Sheldon (James Caan): Annie, what's the matter?
Annie Wilkes: What's the matter? WHAT'S THE MATTER?! I will
tell you "what's the matter!" I go out of my way for you!
I do everything to try and make you happy. I feed you, I clean you,
I dress you, and what thanks do I get? "Oh, you bought the
wrong paper, Anne, I can't write on this paper, Anne!" Well,
I'll get your stupid paper but you just better start showing me
a little appreciation around here, Mr. MAN!
A successful author is rescued from
a near-fatal car accident by a psychotic fan of his work, who keeps
him in her remote cabin and forces him to write a new book.
 Back
in 1990, Rob Reiner was at the peak of his career both from an artistic
and from a commercial point of view. After the cult success of This
is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride, the former actor
had also gained commercial success with Stand By Me, also
a Stephen King adaptation, and had established his presence as a
bankable director with the critical and commercial hit When Harry
Met Sally... But his success with comedy-dramas hadn't prepared
anyone for the level of skill and craftsmanship he proved to possess
with the chilling thriller Misery.
It's little surprise that the former TV star should coax such incredible
performances from his stars. But the level of technical expertise
and visual panache on generous display throughout the film reveals
how closely Reiner studied Hitchcock to build up suspense by focusing
eloquently on important visual details and allowing images to tell
the story. Sadly, this memorable chiller was the last time we've
seen Reiner in such good form as a director to date. He followed
up Misery with the commercially hugely successful but flatly
directed A Few Good Men, signposting the rapid decline in
wit and originality that would ultimately yield such turkeys as
North and The Story of Us. A particularly sad decline
for someone who was so clearly one of the industry's most versatile
talents a mere decade ago. |
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Previously available as a bare-bones
release for Region 1 and Region 2, and recently re-released as a
Special Edition for Region 2, with no release date as yet planned
for Region 1. The Region 2 Special Edition served as the basis for
this review.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at an aspect ratio of approx. 1.85:1. Drawn from a brand-new
high-definition master, this transfer exhibits terrific sharpness,
impressive detail and solid blacks. In fact, apart from some occasional
very fine grain, there is hardly a flaw to be found at all on this
crisp presentation.
The Dolby
Digital 5.1 sound mix is strongly focused on the front soundstage,
which boasts a wide stereo presence, with dialogues firmly anchored
and well-separated in the center channel. Rear channels are used
mainly for ambient effects and rare directionality in this dialogue-dominated
film.
Long available only as a disappointing movie-only
DVD release, this new Special Edition finally gives this minor classic the supplements it clearly
deserves. The newly produced documentary 'Misery Loves Company' runs thirty minutes and features
solid new interview footage with all the principals of cast and crew (apart from Richard
Farnsworth, who passed away recently). It provides an excellent overview of the film's
production history and includes some brief behind-the-scenes glimpses of Reiner and his cast
at work on the set. The 15-minute featurette 'Marc Shaiman's Musical Misery Tour' is an
informative and entertaining interview with the composer of the movie's score, who proves
himself a thoroughly likeable and highly engaging speaker. He discusses not only his work
on the film's orchestral score, but also the work done on the foley effects as well as other
related matters.
The feature is accompanied by separate audio commentary tracks from screenwriter William Goldman
and director Rob Reiner, and though each holds a reasonable amount of background information
on the film's development and production, both speakers get drawn into the movie all too often,
resulting in long silences. The tracks could easily have been edited together into a single
commentary track, which would have been vastly preferable to having two full tracks with so many
long gaps in them. Eight animated photo galleries house a great wealth of
behind-the-scenes images as well as some promotional stills. The galleries can be
accessed individually or played in sequence with the 'Play All' function. The teaser trailer
and theatrical trailer round out these solid extras.Menus are nicely animated with a
dark design that echoes the fim's main themes and includes stylized
stills and brief footage from the film.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
January 5, 2003
Click
here for IMDB info on Misery.
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to return to the front page.
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