Misery – which is better: the movie or the book?

Today I’ll be looking at the 1987 psychological thriller novel Misery by Stephen King and the 1990 film adaptation Misery starring Kathy Bates and James Caan released in 1990.

Which is better – the movie or the book?

The Book:

 

Misery was written by horror mastermind Stephen King in 1987, and is one of my favourite of his books. It also produced what I consider one of the best film adaptations of his work. The plot boils down to this: Paul Sheldon is a famous author who crashes his car in a blizzard, only to be rescued by his ‘Number One Fan’ Annie Wilkes who ‘nurses’ him back to health in her house. That sounds nice right? Well… it might have if I hadn’t started off by telling you that this story was written by Stephen King, who would sooner write a heart-warming tale of an invalid being nursed back to health by a kindly lady as Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan would star in a PSA for substance abuse.

Now I’ve read quite a few Stephen King novels (surprising news, considering I’m such a scardycat), and I’ve noticed a pattern emerging. Whenever I begin a Stephen King novel I always start by thinking ‘I’m not scared’. And it’s true, I’m not. King is the master at luring you into a false sense of security. Also – he’s an amazingly clever author and must love scaring the pants off people. He begins by drawing you into the environment of the story (often Derry – his fictional town in Maine or somewhere with lots of snow and woods, etc), and slowly introducing a character who doesn’t seem frightening at all. Wrong! A few chapters in, it’s too late. I’ve gone from ‘I’m not scared’ to ‘What the hell just happened’.. then pretty soon I’m the guy from Troll 2 and want to go put the book in the freezer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MlaIe1ljs

This is an incredibly claustrophobic book. We are trapped inside the story with Paul, and there is no escaping from his constant and pained narration. As his physical and mental health deteriorates, the narration goes along with it. Trapped in a constant battle with pain, and his new addiction to pain medication, his thoughts slip away and we slip with him. Stephen King has a very particular style of writing, and it is used to its best advantage in Misery. King includes short sharp paragraphs of thoughts and flashbacks, which are often left unexplained. When Paul was slipping into anxiety, he would hear things his mother had said to him years ago, followed by Annie’s menacing voice, then random extracts from the text. Not knowing exactly what is happening helps us fully understand Paul’s frame of mind, and also to form connections between his past and present experiences.

The book is incredibly gruesome, and oddly enough, is much gorier than the film. The pivotal scene in the film Misery, the one you may know of even if you haven’t seen it before, is different in a key way. Let’s just say that the ‘instrument’ she uses to prevent Paul from leaving her clutches is a bit sharper than the one used in the film. Also – there are additional scenes of horror in the book that I’m very grateful for their absence in the film. At one point, Paul comments that the missing ‘n’ key on the typewriter is irritating. So Annie cuts off his thumb with an electric knife to prevent the key bothering him anymore. I’m glad this isn’t how computer studies class was run in high school. The climax of the novel is similar, but I was more horrified because I was unable to cover my eyes while reading, which is what I do during the film. And the fate of the sheriff in the movie was quicker and kinder than the poor junior police officer in the novel, who was pretty cut up by the reception he got at ol’ Annie’s house.

Misery is a story about writing, and Stephen King smatters the book with references to the writing process and the power of writing. We are also privy to Misery’s Return, the story within a story, and being able to read chapters of the book as Paul is writing them gives us an idea of the devotion Annie has to the book series. The film is less about Misery as a piece of writing, but more about how much Annie loves and needs the character of Misery. I kept wondering whether this story was inspired by a particularly intense piece of fan-mail. It’s very easy to see how this story could blend the lines between fact and fiction, as I’ve seen firsthand the extreme attachment people have to book series such as Twilight and Harry Potter. So I wouldn’t be driving in a blizzard anytime soon Stephanie Meyer.

The Movie:

 

In 1990 (this year produced a lot of quality creations) Misery was adapted into a film by director Rob Reiner, whose films I will be returning to at least three times in this blog. I spent pretty much the entire movie clutching my forehead, as I tend to do when frightened out of my seat by, well, anything scarier than shadow puppets.

The film is less claustrophobic than the novel – right from the start we are transported out of the tiny room to New York to see Paul’s literary agent; the site of the car crash to see further investigations; and to wherever Buster, the local sheriff (played by Richard Farnsworth who was delightful as Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables) went as he was investigating Paul’s disappearance. This gives us a needed break from the tension escalating at Annie’s house.

Kathy Bates played Annie Wilkes superbly, and she received a well deserved Oscar for her efforts (she also gave a wonderful, funny and humble speech – you should check it out on the you tubes). At the beginning Annie seems so gentle and sweet, which is a mark of Bates’ talent as an actress as I knew where her character was headed. The transformation is amazing, and it’s all in Bates’ facial expressions, vocal work and timing. During most of her scenes, the camera remains steady and just pushes closer and closer into her face, giving us the time to see every tick and every movement.

James Caan, whom I have not seen in anything else, does a remarkable job at portraying Paul throughout the film. Aside from a few minutes at the beginning and end, Paul is incapacitated the whole film and in varying levels of pain (mind you, the least amount of pain he’s in is still more than I would ever like to feel in my life, let alone his highest moment of pain), and James brings this pain to life. I actually felt ill just watching him try to struggle – I really believe in it. Seeing him trying to manoeuvrer himself while so badly injured reminds me slightly of Rear Window, which is a favourite film of mine. However, Misery  is much grittier and painful, whereas Jimmy Stewart was always so clean and well cared for by his girlfriend and a real nurse.

I suppose in 1990 they never expected the audience to have the technology to pause their film in such high quality. There is a scene where Paul flips through Annie’s scrapbook (filled with the death notices of the 39 people she murdered of course; including her father, roommate and countless babies) and I was able to pause it to read the articles closely. Every clip was the same paragraph pasted over and over. Random bit of information – but I was interested.

The end of the film is slightly different to the novel. While the novel continues on from the climax scene to explain what happened to Paul and Annie, the film jumps forward 18 months to end on a joke. While I enjoyed the little ‘wink’ to the audience that the joke provided, I felt the novel was able to maintain the horror and anxiety of the story, while also giving Paul and his Misery series a bit of closure. That being said, I enjoyed that the movie let me walk away smiling as opposed to feeling like I wanted to crawl under the covers clutching knitting needles to my chest.

What I did:

I read about 50 pages of the novel first (a Kindle sample portion), then couldn’t get the book at my library so just gave up. Then the film came on the television, so I taped it and watched it late one night (not a good idea). My mum was on the computer in the same room and kept making that disapproving parent noise (the best way to spell it is ‘tchk’) and saying things like ‘why are you watching this?’, ‘this is disgusting’ and ‘oh, for heaven’s sake’, mostly during the final scene. I finished the book this week after I finally found a copy and thankfully, wasn’t quite as scared because I knew how it ended…. or so I thought.

What you should do:

Watch the movie – – – it is incredible. But so is the book. I’m torn. But I think it’s a close enough adaptation that it’s very easy to love both. The book took a lot longer to progress while the film was brisk and economical, which is the beauty of the book-to-film adaptation, as it gives you the fast or slow version. If you have enough time, I’d read the book then watch the film. But if you just don’t have any time in your life for ‘reading for pleasure’, then I would suggest the film.