Misery: Blurred Lines Between Admiration and Obsession
Written by Revan (Kru’23)
Adapted from Stephen King’s novel with the same title, Misery (1990) explores how fanaticism can be destructive to others. This film stars Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, a manipulative fanatic who holds her favorite author, Paul Sheldon, played by James Caan, captive. This film is mainly filled with Annie and Paul’s interactions throughout its 107 minutes screen time.
Nowadays in the era of social media we often see fanatics online that are willing to do anything for their idol. But what will happen if a fanatic holds power over their idol? This is simply the premise of this film. In the beginning of this film, it is really clear that Annie is still starstruck about meeting his favorite author, Paul. She cannot control her laugh, and is always smiling when she interacts with him. She showed her affection by feeding him, giving him medicine, interacting with him by talking about his books and so on. This phase is probably equivalent with if we met our favorite celebrity in public. The feeling of disbelief, wanting to interact more, or even taking a picture together with them.
But later her admiration for him turned into a possession. It seems like there are some kind of blurry lines between her admiration and obsession she has by taking control of Paul. She started to break down when the story of her favorite novel by Paul does not go how she wanted it to be. She later forces him to change the story for her. What is really interesting is that she sometimes still acts completely normal until there is a minor inconvenience or a disagreement with Paul. Seems like there are two different people inside her. The tension that is maintained in this film really fascinates me. The transition between the “normal” scene and the scene when Annie tried to abuse him verbally or even physically is arranged perfectly.
My favorite scene in this film is when Paul tried to kill Annie by hiding a knife under his bed. Unfortunately Annie found that out and “punished” him by striking a hammer on his already injured leg. And after that she said “God, I love you”. This scene is really interesting to me because of the contrast between what she said and what she did to him. This shows that her “love” to Paul is only about her love to manipulate him. She clearly has sadistic tendencies to Paul. She gains pleasure and a sense of control of Paul after threatening and making him beg not to abuse him. She wants all Paul’s attention and love just for herself.
Overall, director Rob Reiner successfully made a suspenseful film without making it too cringy or predictable, at least for me. I also really like the cinematography in this film. Whether it’s an outside far shoot with a snowy setting. Or even scenes about suspenseful interactions between Annie and Paul. The script is also well written and every scene is important to the story. Even the ending scene about Paul’s aftermath is so iconic, it still feels so thrilling to me.
