During the past 2 weeks while the whole day I worked from home, the rest of the time I spent it by catching up various TV series and watching cable TV. There was 1 channel that I like named Hits Movies which specifically shows movies from the year 1990s and before. It was good for me as it has some movies that I could rewatch or some that I had never seen. Like last night it showed this movie adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same title. Anyway, I really felt like writing this one. So here goes.
Brief Story Line
John Smith (Christopher Walken - The Jungle Book live version, Catch Me if You Can etc) was a school teacher who was in serious relationship with fellow teacher named Sarah (Brooke Adams - Invasion of the Body Snatchers etc). After involved in a heavy accident, John was in a coma for years and being treated in a hospital managed by Dr. Weizak (Herbert Lom). When he finally woke up, John found that everything has changed around him. But the biggest change was he had some kind of psychic ability where he could see someone's past or future.
Despite his reluctance, John later decided to help Sheriff Bannerman (Tom Skerrit - Poison Ivy, Picket Fences TV series etc) and his deputy Frank Dodd (Nicholas Campbell - .Da Vinci's Inquest TV series etc) to solve murder cases in Castle Rock town. John would soon be caught in the middle of moral dilemma regarding the use of his new "ability". So what would happen to John? Find them all in this psychological thriller movie that was highly regarded by critics.
End of Brief Story Line
As I have been quite accustomed with Stephen King's novel adaptation in movies/series, I could already guess how this movie would be. It was a strong psychological thriller with focus on the mystery and also the struggle the main character (portrayed greatly by Christopher Walken) had after having this psychic ability. The central attention was definitely on Johnny having to adapt with everything surrounding him after the accident.
The start of the film was quite the standard slow pace of character introduction. Things got a lot more interesting once the psychic ability appeared. Then it was intriguing with some sympathy towards Johnny for having had such experience. The drama portion felt quite strong in here which made it perfect as psychological thriller. The visions part were done neatly though the special effects were really poor by the current standard, although probably it was already good enough at that time (personally it made me a bit frustrated looking at them).
The music was pretty suitable for this genre but the sound quality was definitely not the plus point here which could be understood for a 1983 movie. It's too bad though cause I think it would definitely help provide the suspense in certain scenes. Oh, there was also another thing that reduced my pure enjoyment since this channel was interrupted frequently by commercials (just like when I watched another Stephen King's adaptation The Shining sometime ago). But the satisfaction of being able to watch it quite defeat the irritated feeling.
Back to the movie again, I think the best performance was definitely by Christopher Walken. There were other names that I knew in here aside from those mentioned above, like Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now, The West Wing TV series etc) and Anthony Zerbe (License to Kill, The Young Riders TV series etc). I also like the smooth story telling done by the director David Cronenberg (previous works included The Fly, A History of Violence etc) with some surprisingly stylish opening credit scene. The plot was intelligently done, but the part relating to the murder mystery was a bit too brief to my opinion. The ending though quite predictable but somehow felt just for me. My only regret was not able to watch this movie a lot sooner, as I probably would have enjoyed it better then than now.
Overall it was a good movie. I could understand the appeal for movie critics and their appreciation of this film as one of Stephen King's novel best adaptation. It should be able to satisfy King's fans and audience who like psychological thriller genre, however it might not be suitable for people who prefer scary movie filled with horrifying supernatural images and jump scare scenes. So if you have not seen this movie yet, you can definitely give this a try. It's available on Hits Movies channel. It's an interesting option for those who have to stay at home.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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