Rating: 3.5/5
Hooptober 3.0 | 29/31 | Stephen King Adaptation
Jessie and Gerald pack small suitcases. Jessie packs a new silk slip alongside her toiletries and clothes. Gerald packs a couple of sets of handcuffs in his. They go on a romantic weekend at a lake house. They have drifted apart after eleven years of marriage. This trip is their last-ditch effort to rekindle the marriage.
The radio distracts Gerald with a story about a grave robber before Jessie draws him back to the road. He stops just before colliding with a dog munching on roadkill. Gerald honks to get it to move, but Jessie takes pity on the starving creature. Still, they leave the dog behind as they pull up to the lake house.
Once there, Gerald steps aside to take a work call while Jessie dons her sun hat and takes in the lakeside view. Jessie finds some Kobe beef steaks in the fridge. She cuts one up to bring outside for the dog. Meanwhile, Gerald pops a 100mg pill of Viagra and ushers Jessie inside to “get comfy.”
Jessie changes into her slip, pulling off the price tag. She poses seductively and fidgets with the slip and how it falls on her. Gerald enters shirtless, handcuffs in hand. He locks her arms to the bedposts. Jessie is visibly uncomfortable, but accommodating.
Gerald steps away to take another Viagra. His tone changes as he pretends to be a stranger who has found Jessie chained up. Jessie tries to play along, but the game becomes violent and she demands he stop. Gerald’s resentments surface and the two get into a heated argument. Jessie begs him to get the keys off the bathroom sink and uncuff her. He refuses. Before they can agree, Gerald has a heart attack and dies, leaving Jessie trapped.
We spend most of the movie watching the conversations in Jessie’s head. She recognizes what led her here and, hopefully, the means to escape. But a man shows up. Jessie cannot tell if he is real or a trick of the moonlight.
Though the relationship plays into familiar gender troupes, it still touches on an authentic dynamic.
When long-term relationships drift apart, one partner can fill their head with fantasies they’re sure their partner would not consent to, and likely seek that elsewhere.
The film also explores how childhood traumas inform the people we have relationships with, whether we realize it. As many of us discover, we seek the familiar over the healthy.
Carla Gugino is incredible here. This whole movie rests on her performance, and she nails it.
The hand trauma in this movie is the most brutal I remember seeing. Jesus Christ!
Mike Flanagan is consistently as bad as Stephen King at endings, and this movie is no exception. The movie didn’t exactly have subtext, but the ending erases any shades of nuance. The last moment is so baffling.
Still, those final fifteen minutes don’t undo the tense and engaging experience before it. Folks have often considered the original Stephen King story unfilmable. This movie doesn’t disprove that, but it’s the best possible attempt I can imagine.