[.ca] Misery 90 (ISBN 0792846338)

From Amazon.com:
Based on the chilling bestseller by Stephen King, Misery was brought to the screen by director Rob Reiner as one of the most effective thrillers of the 1990s. From a brilliant adaptation by screenwriter William Goldman, Reiner turned King's cautionary tale of fame and idolatry into a mainstream masterpiece of escalating suspense, translating King's own experience with obsessive fans into a frightening tale of entrapment and psychotic behavior. Kathy Bates deservedly won an Academy Award for her performance as Annie Wilkes, an unbalanced devotee of romance novels written by Paul Sheldon (James Caan), whose books provide Annie with a much-needed escape from her pathetic life and her secret, violent past. After Annie rescues the injured Sheldon from a car accident, she seizes the opportunity to nurse her favorite writer back to health, but her tender loving care soon turns to terrorism as she demands that Sheldon write his latest novel according to her wish-fulfillment fantasies. From this point forward, Misery percolates to a boil as equal parts mystery, thriller, and cleverly dark comedy, with the helpless author pitched in deadly warfare against his number one fan. While Bates carefully modulates her role from doting kindness to sympathetic loneliness and finally to horrifying ferocity, Caan is equally superb as the celebrated author who must literally write for his life. It's essentially a two-actor film, but Richard Farnsworth and Lauren Bacall are excellent in supporting roles as they investigate the writer's mysterious disappearance. Frightening, funny, and totally irresistible, Misery was such a hit that some of Bates's dialogue entered the popular lexicon (particularly her nagging reference to Caan as "Mister Man"), and its nail-biting thrills remain timelessly intense. --Jeff Shannon

a thoroughly good time:
this is one of the best movies ive seen. kathy bates just walks away with the whole picture, as she does in everything ive ever seen her do.shes so over the top in this character that you find yourself wondering what the heck shell do next.james caan turns in an understated performance, giving kathy first place and room for her characted to develop into what it does.well worth watching and owning as are fried green tomatoes and delores claiborne.

The best Stephen King movie:
This is, by far, the best Stephen King movie of all time! I have one small complaint, which is one I have about MANY classic movies on DVD: WHERE ARE THE BONUS FEATURES?! For a movie this great, I would expect a documentary about it, maybe a commentary. But that's my only complaint about it. I love this movie so much. I could watch it over and over again. We are given perfect performances by James Caan and Kathy Bates. It's hard to believe that MGM originally wanted James Caan for the part of Rocky instead of Sylvester Stallone. The movie begins with writer Paul Sheldon finishing his book at a lodge that he travels to, but on his way home he gets caught in a blizzard and crashes his car. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he is rescued by Annie Wilkes, his "number one fan", who feels that she has found a prize and will do anything she has to to keep it. I will not tell the whole story, I don't want to ruin it. All I can say is this: If you love every Stephen King movie you have seen, BUY THIS!!!; and, if you HATE every Stephen King movie you have seen, BUY THIS!!!

Intense and very original.:
Misery is by far one of my favorite movies. A writer gets in a car accident and ends up being held at this crazy nurse's home.Excellent plot & fantastic ending---A must've for any one into suspense and who loves S. king's books & movies.

Fantastic:
The scary thing about Steven King's novels is that they're not that ridiculous. This one in particular, could very well happen. Just remember the penguin always looks south.

"She can't be dead, MISERY CHASTAIN CANNOT BE DEAD!":
By now pretty much everybody knows the rule that the best movies made from Stephen King novels do not put his name above the title and do not trumpet the fact in the trailer. This would be film's like "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Green Mile," and, of course, "Misery." Director Rob Reiner did the first and last films on that list, so he would know. The idea in this 1990 film is fairly simple and one that obviously would send shivers up and down King's own spine: what if an author became the captive of his "number one fan," who, needless to say, is a psychotic maniac? Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a famous writer, who has been turning out historical bodice rippers about a heroine named Misery Chastain. As was the case with Arthur Conan Doyle, who killed off Sherlock Holmes at one point, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, who tried to kill off Tarzan's Jane, Sheldon has enough of his fictional creation and has killed her off in a book about to hit the stands. Meanwhile he has just finished a new novel about the slums in which he grew up that he hopes will establish his reputation as a serious writer. However, after he leaves the secluded Colorado Hotel where he goes to write his books his car crashes during a snowstorm and he is horribly hurt. But before he dies he is taken from his car and when he awakes he finds himself in a bed, both of his legs broken, and in the care of Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), a nurse who gleefully informs Paul that she is his "number one fan." Grateful to be alive and believing Annie's story that they are snowed in and that the phone lines are down because of the storm, Paul recuperates. He even lets Annie read his new manuscript, a privilege reserved for his editor, agent, and anybody who saves his life. But Annie does not like Paul's new novel and when she discovers he has killed off Misery she goes off the deep end. It becomes clear to Paul that if he has any hope of getting out of there alive, he is going to have to bow to dictates of his "number one fan" and bring Misery Chastain back from the grave. Meanwhile, Paul's agent (Lauren Bacall) has called up the local sheriff (Richard Farnsworth) and alerted him to the fact that the writer, on his way to New York with a new manuscript, has disappeared. With the help of his plucky wife (Frances Sternhagen), the sheriff starts to search for Paul, who is trying to find some way of getting away from Annie, even in his hobbled condition. Unfortunately, the more he learns about Annie, the less he likes his prospects and the more desperate his condition becomes. The original novel had a great irony in that under Annie's stern editorial guidance Paul is rather mortified to find the new Misery novel he is writing is the best thing he has ever done. But with William Goldman's script the novel he is writing is but a small part of the game of cat and mouse between Annie and Paul. Once it becomes clear Annie is insane Paul faces the daunting task of keeping on the slippery slope of her good side. Besides, Goldman knows that the whole bit that King did in the novel with Paul's typewriter, which keeps losing keys as his work goes along, would not translate to the film, so he did not even try. This film represented the second time King created a female character who would be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, the difference being that Kathy Bates won for "Misery" whereas Sissy Spacek did not for "Carrie." While Caan turns in a solid performance as a character bound to a bed or wheelchair for most of the film, ultimately it is Bates who makes this film work with the way that she goes from sweet to sour on the drop of a pin. Annie's is a many faceted lunacy and part of the terror is that Paul never knows which one will come walking through the door or back out of it again. "Misery" struck me as being a flip on "The Exorcist" in that instead of being afraid of what we would find when we walked through the door, this time we were afraid of what was going to open the door and walk through. "Misery" is a relatively simple and rather intimate horror film. This time King's monster is a human being and that makes Annie Wilkes one of the scariest, especially as she is played by Bates. When you think of all the fine cinematic performances Bates has turned in since then, especially in "Dolores Claiborne" and "Primary Colors," you have to be glad that Bette Midler turned down the role of Annie when it was offered to her.