I remember last year finally actually meeting my personal celebrity crush and it was great. But after autographs and pictures he went his way and I went mine. There's a line between being a fan and being a freak.
Which is a line that Kathy Bates erased with her Oscar winning performance in Misery. In her disturbed mind the chance of a lifetime came when author James Caan who writes Stephen King like novels comes to her town and she follows him out one winter night when he drove his car into a ditch.
I'm not sure that rescue is quite the word for what Bates does to Caan. She frees him from the wreck and brings him home and gives him needed medical aid as she is a trained nurse. But with two broken legs and a broken arm, Caan's pretty much at her mercy.
And then woe betide poor Caan when Bates discovers a draft of his latest work where he is killing off a favorite character. It's like Arthur Conan Doyle trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes and in fact he did try, but was forced by public outcry to bring him back.
But Caan's facing a most demanding public of one. He gets under her tutelage to rewrite his work. In the mean time the fact he's missing is of national news. It's like if John LeCarre or Nelson DeMille went missing. The car is found and sheriff Richard Farnsworth has his suspicions.
Which brings me to the only weakness of the story. I can't believe that he did not bring those suspicions with the evidence he had to the state police and eventually not have backup when he decides to act on his suspicions. He only confides in wife Frances Sternhagen and she's not much help.
Stephen King has written any number of novels with monsters and other worldly creatures, but this story is pretty horrific all by itself, especially when the only monster here is a human one.
Bates and Caan are great pair of antagonists. Misery is a great story about obsessed fans and what they can do.
Which is a line that Kathy Bates erased with her Oscar winning performance in Misery. In her disturbed mind the chance of a lifetime came when author James Caan who writes Stephen King like novels comes to her town and she follows him out one winter night when he drove his car into a ditch.
I'm not sure that rescue is quite the word for what Bates does to Caan. She frees him from the wreck and brings him home and gives him needed medical aid as she is a trained nurse. But with two broken legs and a broken arm, Caan's pretty much at her mercy.
And then woe betide poor Caan when Bates discovers a draft of his latest work where he is killing off a favorite character. It's like Arthur Conan Doyle trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes and in fact he did try, but was forced by public outcry to bring him back.
But Caan's facing a most demanding public of one. He gets under her tutelage to rewrite his work. In the mean time the fact he's missing is of national news. It's like if John LeCarre or Nelson DeMille went missing. The car is found and sheriff Richard Farnsworth has his suspicions.
Which brings me to the only weakness of the story. I can't believe that he did not bring those suspicions with the evidence he had to the state police and eventually not have backup when he decides to act on his suspicions. He only confides in wife Frances Sternhagen and she's not much help.
Stephen King has written any number of novels with monsters and other worldly creatures, but this story is pretty horrific all by itself, especially when the only monster here is a human one.
Bates and Caan are great pair of antagonists. Misery is a great story about obsessed fans and what they can do.