I know I won’t get much sympathy from folks up north, but the last two days have been cold, rainy and miserable around here. By “cold” I mean about 40 degrees. There’s been a more-or-less constant drizzle since yesterday morning, which makes it perfect weather for staying inside and eating turkey soup.
Our turkey leftovers are multiplying like mad. I made turkey pie on Friday, so now we have leftovers of that, and turkey soup yesterday—ditto. It’s a veritable turkey hydra. Every time I touch the leftovers, we end up with more in the fridge.
I went to see The Mist on Friday morning ($5 matinee—yippee!). It’s difficult for me to be objective about this film. I read the script nearly a year ago, so I knew Darabont’s new ending, and I visited the set during filming, so I spent a lot of time looking around for things that I remembered from my trip to Shreveport. My experience was compounded by the fact I had a slight headache when I went into the theater and the trailers for Cloverfield and another film that is supposedly created from home videos of a serial killer made things worse. It took a while to adjust to the handheld footage at the beginning of The Mist, but after a while I stopped noticing that. About 2/3 of the way through the movie, someone in the back of the theater had some sort of seizure, which disrupted things for everyone—not the least of whom the poor guy having the seizure.
Some of these things went by so fast you may not have noticed them: A character wearing one of Glenn Chadbourne’s Doug Graves t-shirts for WZON; “Serving Castle Rock since 1967″ painted on one wall of the store; the name of the pharmacy: King’s Sundries; the paperback book rack that was knocked over by the burning man had only Stephen King novels on it; the painting Thomas Jane was working on at the beginning was for a Dark Tower movie.
I liked the movie well enough. The tentacle effects weren’t all that good, but the other critters were awesome. The performances were good. Laurie Holden was a surprise, and Frances Sternhagen was precious. Marcia Gay Harden’s zeal was infectious during filming and I’m glad to see that it came off well on the screen, too. In the spectrum of King films, where Shawshank Redemption is the gold standard with a solid A, I’d say this was a B+. However, it’s a film I look forward to seeing again, maybe a few times.
Yesterday morning, I went to see No Country for Old Men. For some reason, the matinee price was $6.50 instead of $5. Oh, well—at least I was in out of the rain and not hazarding the malls with all those insane Christmas shoppers. I read the McCarthy novel earlier this year and loved it. I’m also a big fan of Tommy Lee Jones and I’m familiar with the setting: I’ve been to that part of West Texas twice. The first time was in the early 90s when a friend and I drove from Houston to Albuquerque for a scientific convention. We passed Del Rio and stopped the first night in Sanderson, which is where Tommy Lee and Llewellyn’s characters lived. It looked more prosperous in the movie. When we were there, the motel we stayed in looked slightly dingier than the Bates Motel. I returned to Sanderson/Marathon/Alpine a year ago to research a novel I set over there. It’s beautiful, desolate country, well captured at the beginning of the movie.
A lot of people have been raving about this movie. I’m not going to rave about it. I liked it, but I wasn’t blown away by it—perhaps because I was familiar with the story going into it. The cinematography was terrific, Tommy Lee Jones was stellar, the villain was suitable creepy. I thought Woody Harrelson was miscast—his untrustworthy smile didn’t work for me. The violence was shocking without being gratuitous.
I thought, however, that the filmmakers ducked a little by not showing us Llewellyn’s fate directly. We were with this guy throughout the movie, so to only give us the aftermath seemed unfair to me. The multiple endings—the fates of the sheriff and Llewellyn and Anton—which worked well for me in the novel, didn’t do as well on the screen, for reasons I don’t know that I can explain. It all became rather existential all of a sudden. I’m glad I saw it, but I was hoping for more.
did you see the painting in the beginng? i have not seen it yet, but a friend of mine was telling me about it.
Okay, I have to admit I’m pretty jealous you got to see the set and read the script. Mentioning there’s a new ending makes me wonder about seeing it now though. I adored The Mist when I first read it, and it’s one of Kings’ stories that stays with me still, to this day giving me an irrational fear of fog. Thanks scary book man!
Have to ask though, was King in it? That’s my favorite thing about movies born from his writing, that nine times out of ten, he’s in them, somewhere, lurking about all creepy like. It’s my favorite easter egg.
Cloverfield is actually another alien rampaging New York movie. Least, I think it is. I want to see it because at least the marketing (primarily net based) has been pretty entertaining, and seeing it would be like finding that lost half to a novel you started six months ago but somehow managed to lose the last 100 pages.
And yes…Texas is frackin’ cold right now!
Yes — I actually saw the painting in person when I visited the set. It was painted by Drew Struzan, who did The Mist movie poster, as well as many other famous movie posters.
No, King wasn’t in it. Nine times out of ten is way high as far as estimates go, though. Two or three out of ten might be more like it. Not even taking the countless idiotic sequels into consideration, I can reel of dozens of films he didn’t cameo in. Carrie, Shining (original), Salem’s Lot (either version), Firestarter, Dead Zone, Dolores Claiborne, Shawshank, Green Mile, Dreamcatcher, Cujo…
He was supposed to, though—he was going to play the biker guy—but his schedule, and the short shooting schedule, didn’t allow for it.
His virtual cameo is c/o his books—there’s a rack that contains nothing but King paperback novels.
My only issue with the Cloverfield trailer, parts of which I’ve seen online, is that the herky-jerky handheld cameras gave me a Blair Witch-sized headache. The opening to Saving Private Ryan did the same thing to me.
oh, i’m so jealous! i can’t wait to see this movie.
oh, cool! i’ll have to keep an eye out for that, too.
When I interviewed Frank Darabont for Rue Morgue issue (#73, still on stands for another week or so!), I told him that if I was a rich man, I’d make Mr. Struzan an offer for that piece of art. Darabont said he was thinking about buying it himself.
It’s really hard to see. The rack gets knocked over by a guy during a critical moment in the movie.
i’d settle for a crappy poster print, or even a postcard, and i have not even seen it yet!
Yeah, I realized after I posted that, that my estimate was a bit to high on the scale. Okay, way to high.
I can completely understand the headache that comes with first person movie footage. I had to take drammamine to watch Blair Witch, and forget Doom. That was a nightmare and a half that last bit of movie there.
I don’t think it has been offered or shown anywhere yet
Cold here, too!
Harden was great in The Mist. Also, I liked those Cronenbergian tentacles– they looked like lady parts!
Old Men I liked a lot, though in the end it felt too much like a McCarthy novel, in that it was made for men and boys, not the female species. It was clearly well done, though, and Harlson was amazing.
There’s a neat article in this week’s NY Times Book Review by Annie Proloux about the new standard for book publishing and film translations.
i hope they do.
thanks for the tip. i’ll keep an extra special eye out for it, now.
as a total side, i wanted to thank you. i’ve been reading your journal for a long time now, and this year you inspred me to join the nano wrimo challenge. i’ve always wanted to write a book, and while it may never be published, i’ve stumbled onto something very personal and highly rewarding. you helped inspire me to do this, and i’m very grateful.
It was fun talking to Harden on the set. She had such a clear vision of her character and saw her as a good person and a right person. I mean, when you think about it, tentacled critters coming out of the clouds sure sounds like the end of times to me!
I’m pleased to hear that. I was going to do NaNoWriMo this year again, but I wasn’t quite ready to start the novel so I decided to wait. I’ll get around to it in a week or so, I figure. Best of luck with your book, though. It’s great that you’ve taken this on!
Never negotiate with monsters from another dimension!