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The
Mist
(2007)
There have been some good films based on the
stories of Stephen King and there have been some really bad
ones. The Mist is my personal
favorite King story, so I approached the film with some caution. My
worries were unfounded; This is one of the good ones.
The night after a violent storm damages his property outside a small
Maine town, successful artist David Drayton (Thomas Jane) takes his
son Billy (Nathan Gamble) into town to purchase supplies. While
they're inside the grocery store, the town rapidly becomes shrouded in
a dense mist and the dozens of people inside the store find themselves
trapped, in danger from both their own hysteria and the deadly
creatures that lurk outside in the mist.
In the skilled hands of screenwriter/director Frank Darabont (The
Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile), it's a mostly faithful
adaptation of King's novella that deftly captures the author's style.
The dark humor, the dialog that sounds natural even as it verges on
becoming hyperbolic, the sometimes eccentric characters, and the
things that go bump in the night (or the mist). They're all here,
faithfully rendered onto the cinema screen.
The film is a fundamentally sound effort that walks the line between
the horror and disaster genres, complete with nail-biting suspense and
frightening creatures. Oh, the creatures. They may only be CGI, but
they're disturbingly alien and you'll struggle to convince yourself
that they're not real.
The exception to its fidelity to King's novella is the ending, which
replaces the ambiguous one of the source material with something much
different and much darker. If the premise sounds like something from
The Twilight Zone, it's Darabont's revised ending that really pushes
it into classic Rod Serling territory, delivering a climax that's as
memorable as it is emotionally devastating. Wow. Just wow.
Cinematographer Ronn Schmidt (Lord of Illusions, television's The
Shield) strives for and achieves a hyper-realistic look that makes it
seem more documentary than fiction. The production was going to be
shot digitally, but it was decided that a grainy film stock would
better suit the demands of the story. Production designer Gregory
Melton (Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, The Majestic)
and costume designer Giovanna Ottobre-Melton (The Rapture) create practical
sets and costumes that also have somewhat of timeless quality to them. Cell
phones and other technology place the story in the here and now, but
visually it could almost be anywhere or anytime. The atmospheric
score by Mark Isham (The Majestic, Crash) adds to the dramatic
tension, and Darabont also uses the classic Dead Can Dance song "The Host of
Seraphim" for great impact at the end.
Jane delivers a strong performance as David, especially at the end,
providing an emotional center for the story. He's well-matched by
Andre Braugher as his acrimonious neighbor and Marcia Gay Harden as a
dangerously delusional religious fanatic. In general, the rest of the
cast are solid and believable, including Gamble as Billy, Laurie
Holden as a schoolteacher who develops an emotional bond to David and
Billy, Toby Jones as the store's unassuming assistant manager, William
Sadler and David Jensen as mechanics, Robert C. Treveiler as the store
manager, Jeffrey DeMunn as a local man who first warns the people in
the store about the danger in the mist, Frances Sternhagen as a gutsy
older woman, Sam Witwer as a soldier who grew up in the town and Alexa
Davalos as a store clerk he has a crush on, and Kelly Collins Lintz as
David's wife.
The Mist immediately ranks as one of the better adaptations of
Stephen King, and it's an entertaining and well-crafted thrill ride
from start to finish. And just try to forget the ending when you
leave the cinema.
-Danielle
Ní Dhighe
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All contents ©
2004-2007 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Frank
Darabont
Writer: Frank
Darabont, Stephen King
Starring: Thomas
Jane, Andre Braugher, Marcia Gay Harden, Nathan Gamble,Laurie Holden,
Toby Jones
Distributor: MGM
Runtime: 127
min
Rating: R
Release Date: November
21, 2007
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