TV Show or Movie: Movie
Where to Watch: Theaters
Genre: Science-fiction,
What It Reminds Me Of:
Writer: Mike Flanagan, based on the short story by Stephen King
Directors: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill.
Premise: A life-affirming, genre-bending story based on Stephen King’s novella about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz.
Review: I really wanted to read the short story before I saw the movie. I did that a few years back before seeing The Black Phone; an Ethan Hawke supernatural horror movie based off of Joe Hill’s short story. If you don’t know already, Hill is the son of Stephen King.
I feel like reading the short story before might have been a mistake because the movie is almost a word-for-word adaptation. I, of course, like a movie that sticks to the book but I felt like this one was almost a literal too literal. I guess it just made the movie not much of a surprise to me as I could quote the next coming line.
That being said, I am a huge Flanagan fan. And a huge Stephen King fan. And I love how much Flanagan is taking on King adaptations. First Doctor Sleep, The Life of Chuck, and he just shared that the production for his Carrie television series has begun.
Once I got comfortable with the movie I just kind of settled in and enjoyed the ride. The movie is a beautifully told story about a man’s life in three parts, told in reverse order. It is billed as a science fiction film. I don’t know if I’d lean fully into that genre. It’s more of a drama, but there are some cool science fiction and paranormal elements to the film that are pretty cool. In fact, the science fiction part of the first act was pretty cool to see done on the big screen.
Go see the movies in theaters. It’s a beautiful story. The acting is great. The eerily beautiful scenes are striking on the big screen.
Trailer: