Not gross, not pointless but a little blank...

Rating: 5/10 (3 December 2007)

To be fair, after the last John Cusack film I saw 'The Contract', which set all-time lows for both this great actor and Morgan Freeman, there was probably no-way it could get any worse for the 41-year old American.
'1408' is based on a short story by Stephen King about a haunted hotel room and was transferred to the big screen by director Mikael Håfström, the man behind the surprisingly-good 'Derailed' a couple of years back.
The problem with short stories is, well, they're short. And in the 104 minutes of the film you can't help but think that maybe we're getting a quick fable pulled out at either end to help fit it onto the cinema screen.
Cusack's character performance moves backwards and forwards from the suitably disdainful Mike Enslin to the terrified and apologetic Mike Enslin, at the instant sight of the ghosts he's been hunting for the past years since the death of his daughter. One would question why, when faced with something he's been looking for, does he turn into a nervous wreck so quickly? Given his profession, an element of fascination would probably have been more suitable, but Cusack's character breaks down mentally as soon as he's faced with his first real test.
Samuel L Jackson also makes an appearance as the hotel manager, warning Cusack not to enter the room that has claimed 56 lives as he arrives for his overnight stay. Jackson's character is amusing, if a little one dimensional.
But this film is really all about Cusack and the terror. And of course, with any Stephen King story, it's about the twist in the plot. Sad to say those that haven't read the book will most likely still see both twists coming a mile off.
The other things that let the film down is that we don't see the connection between what's happening in the room and its history of deaths. We don't get to understand how/who invited Cusack to the hotel in the first place, other than a weak postcard connection. We get a soft conversation between the room and Cusack that frankly delivers a 'get out of jail' card so big it spoils the horror. And any background about Cusack's disturbed state of mind is shoved in haphazardly to try and explain to us what's going on in his head.
When you look back at Cusack's work, you struggle to see past 2000's 'Hi-Fidelity'. There's been 6 or 7 years of fairly low quality films and had the script-writers on 1408 offered us a better and cleaner insight into the character of Mike Enslin, we might be looking at a Cusack revival...