Can't recommend it...Frank dropped the ball.

Rating: 1/10 (22 November 2007)

I have seen a lot of reviews commenting on the human nature of this story and how the ending was amazing or thoughtful.
First off, I'm biased. I'm a real person, with a host of real problems.I work with people who are very ill and if I were a pessimist I could find source material on a daily basis. We enjoy horror because, at it's core, it's an escape. I admire the guts it took Frank D. to make the genre something more.
But he dropped the ball with the ending. Technically the movie is brilliant and well acted. It remains pretty close to the source material. (by Hollywood standards.) But at the end, Frank takes the scripting wheel from the King novella and drives it over a cliff. He has the most contrived and trite ending that is designed to jerk us emotionally. It makes you feel cheated. It's an ending just as bad as any cheesy feel-good sitcom ending. Only it's a tragic opus of coincidence. It's executed poorly, it's a depressed Michael Bay came out of the woodwork handle the last 10 minutes.
I don't need films to jerk negative emotions out of me. I don't know what's going on in Frank's life to warrant such a downer ending on a Thanksgiving release. But suck it up Frank. We all suffer. No need for the low jab. I loved Shawshank, leave the endings to Mr. King.