A Brilliant Failure

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2007)

Although this film has its flaws, the good parts are so good that it still gets eight stars. Until the last two minutes I'd have given it only five or six, but the ending (I'll not breathe a word) is so powerful, so moving, and so human that it got up to eight without breaking a sweat.
The best thing is the performances. Not just the leads- everyone. This is the kind of ensemble work that is usually found only in live theater. One reader compared this to TWELVE ANGRY MEN. Good simile.
The great flaw is that there are moments where these characters do things you just can't believe, and to be generous it runs forty minutes too long. Someone thought it would be a good idea to take 127 minutes to adapt a novella that was only 131 pages. Bad, bad mistake.
For this reason there were too many points where my interest completely drifted. Scenes would end with a fade-out, as if a commercial was going to be inserted at that point. There were two segments that were desperately in need of heavy cutting.
Early in the story David (the main character) and several other characters have seen a store employee killed by a huge beast with many tentacles. Brent, David's next door neighbor, is a lawyer from out of town who owns a vacation home in Castle Rock. Brent refuses to believe their story and thinks that this is all an elaborate practical joke.
OK. Here these people are barricaded in a grocery store. They heard sirens outside, military and emergency vehicles have been rushing by, a bloodied man came in shouting that there's "something" in the mist, the building has been shaken as if by a massive earthquake.
And a man spoken of as destined for the Supreme Court thinks that this is a prank? Yep, those folks in Castle Rock sure know how to pull a practical joke.
Then there's Mrs. Carmody, the local fruitcake who's a nut on religion. The third day of the siege she has a scene that seems inspired by the last act of THE CRUCIBLE and generates giggles when the author/director hoped for gasps. There are points where her monologues seemed to be song cues. There are enough monsters outside in the mist. A little bit of psycho woman goes a long way.
Other than that the special effects are awesome, the acting great, there's a powerful and yet subtle musical score, and Darabont should be proud of himself.
Yes, there are differences between the book and the film. Artistic license.
Since the novella was published, America has been through 9/11, Katrina, and war. These things most likely informed Darabont's decision to develop the story the way he did.
By the way, this is a movie movie. See it in a theater the way the good Lord intended on a big screen and an awesome sound system. The use of stereo, especially in the scene in the drugstore, added a lot to the experience.