BEFORE: In this week's Stephen King spotlight, it's nice that the movies sort of arranged themselves into neat segments - curses, car accidents, and films about writing. Tonight an author gets into a car accident, so for me it's bridging two topics. Again, this is a film written years before King's own car accident...
THE PLOT: A famous novelist is "rescued" from a car crash by an obsessed fan.
AFTER: Forget the car accident - it seems like Mr. King, famous author, looked deep into his own psyche and wrote a story about his own greatest fear - an obsessive, demented fan. I happen to work in a small corner of the entertainment industry, and I can confirm (through observation, not experience...) that there are groupies in every segment. Obviously actor groupies, rock groupies, but also probably writer and director groupies as well. Heck, there are probably doctor, lawyer and fireman groupies, for all I know.
I've also met my share of mentally unbalanced people over the years, but that's another story...
On another note, I just spent three days in upstate New York, and while that's not the same as spending time in a remote, snowed-in cabin in Colorado, it was still more rustic than I'm used to. It's funny, I grew up in the suburbs outside Boston, but I couldn't wait to leave for the big city - now I visit small towns to relax, and I find them quite charming.
Of course, I wasn't injured and being held against my will. One comedian, I think Brett Butler, once said - city people will kill you, but country folk will KEEP you.
Yep, things move a little slower in a small town - which is why the town sheriff decides to track down the missing author by...reading all of his books? Huh? He might be starving and freezing to death, and you head to the bookstore? As opposed to, say, conducting a door-to-door search, or you know, asking around to see if anyone has seen anything suspicious...great job, sheriff! How long until you get around to some good old-fashioned legwork - weeks? Months?
Still, it's a gripping tale, very suspenseful - and it's essentially a guidebook for dealing with irrational people. How do you string them along until you can plan an escape route? And it's got one of the most gripping climaxes in the history of ever, so it's probably the winner of the week.
Starring James Caan (last seen in "Get Smart"), Kathy Bates (last seen in "About Schmidt"), Richard Farnsworth (last seen in "The Two Jakes"), Frances Sternhagen (last seen in "Bright Lights, Big City"), and Lauren Bacall (last seen in "To Have and Have Not"). And a quick cameo from J.T. Walsh (last seen in "Hoffa").
RATING: 7 out of 10 typewriter ribbons (funny, we never see him change the ribbon...)
SPOOK-O-METER: 8 out of 10. When a creepy fan has got you tied to the bed, that's just about one of the scariest situations imaginable...
Welcome to the world of comic-book fandom. Every time I'm online and I read some hysterical posting about how the reading the revamp of, say, "Sonic The Hedgehog" was like experiencing 9/11 again (only worse), I imagine Kathy Bates at the keyboard.
ReplyDelete(But that's silly. Today, the Kathy Bates character would be one of those middle-aged women who reads the "Twilight" books.)
I was surprised the sheriff didn't figure everything out in ten minutes. Isn't "everybody in town knows your business" a feature of small-town livin'?
(And why the HELL would that be considered a positive?)
It reminds me of a John Candy sketch from SCTV: "Mike Chisel, Small-Town Dick." He's a private eye in a town of 200 people.
Typical "Chinatown"-style conversations always end with
"So how's your mom's bursitis, Mike?"
"Real good, real good...the dry air's really helped her out."
"Is she going to Arizona this winter?"
"She won't have to...that's the beauty of it."
And of course he can't shadow his suspect without every passer-by stopping to say hello. "What's up, Mike? Tailing Joe Anderson? Wow, didja hear that he's been seeing Betty Kupper at the Shady Pines motel every Tuesday at 2 for the past month?"