The best thing king ever wrote, adapted superbly, until...

Rating: 5/10 (16 April 2008)

Okay, I can only write 1 review so I chose to write one with minor spoiler instead of one with and one without. The very reason I'm writing this review is as a warning. As far as the spoiler goes, I'll try to lead up to it slow so that if you feel you get the gist of my warning before the end of the review you can stop reading and maybe save the surprise for movie-time. The movie was great, based on the best thing King ever wrote and one of my all time favourite stories. The characters were all cast perfectly and it stayed very true to the original story. (the fact that it was a SHORT story probably made that pretty easy.) But they changed something. And it really really bothered me. It bothered me in the way Law and Order SVU sometimes bothers me and it bothered me in the way the news sometimes bothers me. Maybe bother is too light of a word. I'm not going to say exactly WHAT they changed cuz the what doesn't really matter so no need to spoil that part. It was the HOW that bothered me. So here's the part that may give something away. If you are a parent, or if child-victims bother you even in fiction, you may want to rethink this and stick to the original work. It wasn't at all graphic, and to be honest it was done in the most tasteful way this change could have been done. Technically, they don't even really show it. But it is there and there's no way of saying "well, maybe they meant this" or "maybe they meant that." Nope. It's pretty unmistakable, and as a parent it's probably gonna keep me up the rest of the night especially considering the movie didn't end until 2am anyway. Its gonna take a a few hours of classic sitcoms on TVLand to soften my mood now. But don't let me be misunderstood. I'm not saying the director or screenwriter did anything wrong per-se, it was actually a very interesting twist. It wasn't a distasteful element like the entire movie Hostel was. It was a clever, interesting, and original twist that bothered the hell out of me. This movie would have been a 10, and I feel somewhat guilty giving it a 5 because of something that was completely a matter of taste and not quality. But my reasons are all right here so I think it's pretty much justified.