This is quite a year for Mr. Stephen King, isn't it? Two new novels, Gwendy's Button Box and Sleeping Beauties (co-written by Richard Chizmar and his own son Owen King, respectively); a second, critically-acclaimed film adaptation of It; The Dark Tower finally saw life on the screen, albeit in an abysmal way; and an upcoming film adaptation of novella 1922, from his short fiction collection Full Dark, No Stars. However, the bit of King news this writer was the most excited about was a Netflix-produced film version of one of my favorite of his novels, Gerald's Game; and by one of my favorite directors working in the genre today, Mike (Absentia, Oculus) Flanagan, no less! I have to go ahead and say, this may be one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made.
Jess and Gerald, a middle-aged married couple in Louisiana, head up to their secluded vacation home in an attempt to save their crumbling marriage by fulfilling a particular bondage/rape fantasy of his. Unfortunately for both, Gerald should've watched his cholesterol levels a little more; he keels over dead after about 10 minutes, leaving Jess chained to the bedposts with all means of escape --phone, keys, etc-- mere inches out of her reach. If that weren't bad enough, she'd come to regret not making sure their front door was fully closed, thanks to a ravenous stray dog, and a "man made of moonlight" who may or may not be there.
If you were to read the 1992 novel --part of King's "feminist trilogy" that also included Delores Claiborne and Rose Madder-- you would notice that roughly 90% of the book is composed of Jess' internal monologue, and therefore, unfilmable. Writer/director Mike Flanagan certainly did, as he has admitted in multiple interviews, which makes his handling of the multiple inner voices our heroine uses to work her way through he situation even more impressive. Instead of doing the cheesy voice-over thing, he chose to make her internal voices external. She hallucinates versions of herself (including one of her as a child), her newly-dead husband, and even her father giving voice to them.
Gerald's Game is practically word-for-word and beat-for-beat drawn directly from the book but with the fat cut out, keeping an impressive pace and palpable level of tension for a story that could very well have been boring if in less capable hands. The acting is universally perfect, and no worries, people who've read the book, they do not hold back on any of the more visceral moments, including THAT solar eclipse flashback sequence. I literally cannot think of a single negative thing to say about Gerald's Game, and while I know that doesn't make for a very interesting review, I couldn't be happier.
