A Movie with Many Problems

Rating: 2/10 (29 March 2008)

THE MIST has the full panorama of responses, from those who find it 'the best of the Stephen King story adaptations' to those who find it a feeble attempt to wed science fiction with biblical predictions. Frank Darabont has successfully brought King's popular horror stories to the screen with great success. For this film his gathered a substantial cast, used computer generated graphics well, but in the end the result is a confusing mishmash of story versus sermon versus actors being overwhelmed by some really strange upstaging creatures.
David Drayton (Thomas Jane) is a graphic artist who manages to weather a freak storm only to discover a mysterious mist hovering over his backyard lake. Going to town with his young son to get supplies at a Food Store he joins the other townsfolk in the gossip about the mist which now engulfs the town: could it be due to some experiment at the military post lab in the mountains? The store's generator sounds like it is fumbling, and while brave David tries to fix it (mind you, in this town with no electricity, the lights in the main store remain on....), he sees the back wall buckling and hears a bizarre noise. Returning to the storefront, his findings are not believed - especially by the town psycho Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) who sees all things in relation to her channeling of God via her knowledge of the Book of Revelations, and the dubious out-of-towner Brent Norton (Andre Braugher). But gradually David gathers some sensible folk (Toby Jones, Chris Owen, et al) to accompany him to the generator room and against David's warning, the back door is opened by the young stock boy and huge tentacles enter from the mist and consume the lad. Thus we have two factions: those who side with Mrs. Carmody's religious zealot need to sacrifice people to the outdoor monsters now flying about the store and those who are convinced they must fight the offenders with force and escape. The mess of a story is further confused with overlay of father/son devotion, mass hysteria, mob rule, revenge on the military for loosing these 'other world monsters' on the public, and 'what do we do if this is the end of the earth'. How it all winds down may satisfy some and may irritate others.
So why rate this film with two stars instead of one? Marcia Gay Harden gives a bravura performance as the crazy Mrs. Carmody and Toby Jones offers a solid representation of the stable man as a clerk in the store who keeps his wits about him. Thomas Jane is Thomas Jane, and for an action hero, he seems to melt with the circumstances. The movie is long, silly, not scary, and suffers from a weak script. For those who are entertained by this sort of story it may be worthwhile. For those who are fatigued by the same old line of good versus evil in the form of gooey huge monsters, pass on this film. Grady Harp