A superior film ruined by the ending

Rating: 4/10 (5 April 2008)

>>> SPOILERS THROUGHOUT -- PROCEED WITH CAUTION <<<
I rented "The Mist" with high expectations. I'd read the original Stephen King novella some years back and enjoyed it greatly, both as a gripping exercise in terror and a chilling study of how quickly regular people can descend into savagery when denied their basic needs and freedoms. For the most part, Frank Darabont's film adaptation did not disappoint. I found it highly faithful to King's work, maintaining the character dynamics, ominous mood and emotional power of all the key scenes. With a single (but significant) exception, Darabont's vision is an impressive accomplishment in its own right.
The movie is nicely shot and builds its suspense carefully, balancing scenes of intense horror with the requisite calmer moments. I particularly enjoyed how viewers, along with the principal characters, are forced to question whether the greater threat is the ravenous creatures outside in the mist or the evil stirring within their own ranks -- an evil personified in a show-stealing turn by Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs. Carmody. In lesser hands, this over-the-top character could easily have become a laughable caricature, but Harden brilliantly captures Mrs. Carmody's slow transformation from dismissible kook to murderous zealot (and even injects some touches of dark humour, my favourite example being her "if I needed a friend like you..." line to Amanda while exiting the washroom). Based on Harden's performance, I had little trouble accepting why so many of the captive shoppers would fall under Mrs. Carmody's sinister, seductive spell. I found myself riveted by most every second of her screen time, from her part in the shocking sacrifice of the young G.I. to her own climactic death scene.
The other characters are effective as well. Thomas Jane ably anchors the film with his solid portrayal of David Drayton, while Laurie Holden, Frances Sternhagen, and King movie regular Jeffrey DeMunn all add fine performances in supporting roles. André Braugher is also juicily officious as Norton, the skeptical attorney. But my vote for most appealing performance belongs to Toby Jones, who brings a mild, unassuming heroism to the role of Ollie Weeks. His sudden death at the hands (er, "claws") of the lobster-creature was a truly despairing moment in a movie with more than its share of jolts and gore.
In short, I found myself deeply engrossed in "The Mist," and was fully prepared to add it to my "Top Ten" list of favourite films from the past few years... right up until the ending. I don't know exactly what kind of ending I'd been expecting, other than I'd heard it was different from the original and that Stephen King himself wished he'd thought of it when writing his novella. All I can say is, thank God he never did, because while King's finale holds out at least a sliver of hope for the survivors, Darabont's is the bleakest, most dismal movie finale I've seen in probably twenty years. I find it frankly incomprehensible that the director of "The Shawshank Redemption" (itself with plenty of grim moments, but ultimately an inspiring testament to humanity) could possibly have settled on anything so horrifically depressing. It is also -- to quote Annie Wilkes, another King creation -- a cheat. I can only think that if Darabont had allowed the film to run for ten more seconds, we might at least have gotten the closure of watching David Drayton throw himself under one of the oncoming tanks to complete the cycle. As it stands, the ending is just empty, pointless, and childish. It makes you wonder what the &%#*$^! the point was in getting emotionally involved with these characters and their hellish ordeal in the first place.
It's really too bad. I sensed that "The Mist" is one of those films that would have grown richer and more satisfying with repeat viewings, to uncover more character nuance and symbolic elements (like the mist as the human unconscious -- what is obscured, unknown, and feared -- and the three-way tension of reason (Norton), faith (Mrs. Carmody), and the common man (David Drayton)). But for my part, I can't imagine ever sitting through it again when I know there's nothing worthwhile waiting for me at the other end.
My rating: 4/10 (averaging 8/10 for the first 116 minutes and 1/10 for the execrable ending).