Gerald's Game

I will now have higher expectations for Mike Flanagan's work (his series The Haunting of Hill House completely blew me away, so that’s where I’m coming from). I haven’t read King’s "Gerald’s Game", so I can’t compare it to the book. The film is particularly strong in terms of acting; Carla Gugino delivers a performance "par excellence," truly acting for her life in the most intense scenes—outstanding in every way. Bruce Greenwood appears mostly as a hallucination of the main character, but he also gives a solid performance. The claustrophobic atmosphere is effective, but I was expecting a more significant plot twist. Everything proceeds quite linearly; the film doesn’t have anything at its core to lift me out of my seat and make me say, “Wow, that was impressive.” Unfortunately, that effect didn’t materialize. It’s a film packed with atmospheric elements (with the dog and the bone collector as a prime example) and includes a particularly gruesome scene with the hand, but the story is sidelined, and I couldn’t fully immerse myself in it. For me, it’s 6/10. (2020-11-09)

A Stephen King dense psychological charade that is masterfully played out, but doesn't deliver a sufficiently full-blooded resolution at its paradoxically literal conclusion. Flanagan is at his strongest in the first 45 minutes, showing excellent work with mise-en-scene and suspense in a very limited space. The problem comes when psychological themes start to mix with mystery ones, because at times it really comes across like spilled tea. Not to mention the flashbacks, which certainly had a solid place in the plot but often felt unnecessarily lengthy. If there was anywhere that should have been cut more, it was with the flashbacks. Overall, though, a solid genre affair that will definitely have it’s day on Netflix. (2020-01-21)

#metoo movie. Sojka told me wed be seeing these movies quite often now. So what the heck, worse things have happened, the story isn't so bad, after all, especially if you have no idea what you're getting into ("Jesus it's going to be all about him torturing her on the bed and her trying to escape." "Jesus, it's gonna be all about her trying to get herself out of bed." "Jesus, it’s gonna... yeah, that."), the atypical plot development pretty much keeps you in your seat. And yet the maudlin middle section, stretching seemingly endlessly, the unbalanced performances, and the fact that 80% of the film alternates between only about eight different shots doesn't justify the 103-minute running time. (2018-01-05)

It is paradoxical that once King is adapted faithfully once in a blue moon, it is made according to the original that would need one or even better, two rounds of uncompromising editorial commentary that would make it a lot better. In other words, what worked well in the original (basically all the passages in the bed, character study, loss of coherent thinking, reality versus hallucinations, a broken psyche controlling children's fears, coping with inner demons, the will to survive at all costs or vigilant "Cujo" on guard) it works well here either. But the same is true about the things that did not work (basically all the passages outside the bed, a completely appalling ending, continuous flashbacks, maybe just cut-ins/flashes à la The Wild would do it good, and on top of that the initial part has not enough space, i.e. “I´m not only fucked but I´m going crazy too"), so they don´t work were here either. And no matter how shorter it should have been (not only by the mentioned epilogue), thanks to the duo Carl / Bruce it is not such a big deal. In short, it´s a solid average movie with a few memorable moments and an excellent cast. PS: There are also some references to kingversum for king fanatics. (2017-09-29)

I was expecting much more from the Netflix/King/Flanagan combo than a made-for-TV, conversational bore that runs an unnecessarily long 103 minutes, as the premise would be more suited to a short film. On the horror side of things, there is nothing interesting, apart from one scene, otherwise absolutely no suspense or atmosphere and not even the seductive MILF in the lead role can save it. If the book is as boring as the film, I would burn it after 10 pages. Other viewers are satisfied according to the ratings on FilmBooster and IMDB, I had to make myself a double espresso to be able to make it to the end. One star for the lead actress, the other for the hand scene. Quite an ordeal. 40% (2017-09-29)