{"id":8030,"date":"2019-11-08T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T19:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2019-11-08T14:01:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T19:01:00","slug":"review-doctor-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=8030","title":{"rendered":"Review: DOCTOR SLEEP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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One of the biggest disappointments in my movie-going life was watching Stanley Kubrick\u2019s adaptation of Stephen King\u2019s \u201cThe Shining\u201d right after I had scared myself silly racing through the book, keeping the lights on at night.

Kubrick didn\u2019t get King\u2019s delicate build-up of a fragile family\u2019s disintegration and chaotic demise. The director wanted to make a cheesy horror flick, a Grand Guignol spectacle, and cheese he got: the movie turned Jack Nicholson into a ridiculous meme, and led Shelley Duval to have a nervous breakdown and ultimately abandon a promising film career.\u00a0 \u00a0Used to the gentle directing ways of Robert Altman (they did four movies together, \u201cMcCabe and Mrs. Miller,\u201d \u201cNashville,\u201d \u201c3 Women\u201d and \u201cPopeye;\u201d classics all), \u00a0Kubrick\u2019s bullying \u201cmethod\u201d abuse must have come as a shock to the actress.

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Ewan McGregor walks familiar halls as the grown-up Danny Torrance. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stephen King was so unhappy with the Kubrick film he adapted a remake of \u201cThe Shining\u201d – or a re-interpretation, rather, a three-episode TV-series, which aired in 1997. King hand-picked Mick Garris to direct, after Garris had worked on \u201cThe Stand,\u201d turning it into the most-watched miniseries of 1994. \u00a0

The TV-\u201cShining\u201d was a more satisfying viewing experience than the Kubrick mess, but it still missed the full magic of the book.

Happily, director Mike Flanagan GETS \u201cDoctor Sleep,\u201d Stephen King\u2019s follow-up to \u201cThe Shining.\u201d He understands that while a King novel is about mysterious happenings, most of them supernatural and often truly horrible, at the root of each book is character, atmosphere, and humaneness. \u00a0

As a co-writer with King, Flanagan takes his time setting the tale, so that we barely notice when the small frissons of unpleasantness (a little girl goes off on her own to pick flowers in the woods) turn into harrowing acts of brutality (somewhat older boy is kidnapped and tortured).\u00a0

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Rebecca Ferguson releasing steam as Rose the Hat.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We meet Danny, now Dan, again, in the adult shape of Ewan McGregor. The actor plays down his natural attractiveness, making him fully believable as a plain, middle-aged man down on his luck.

Desperate to conceal his \u201cshining,\u201d the telepathic behavior that landed him and his family in such trouble when he was a small boy, Dan is now a recovering alcoholic, who finds peace in the menial job as a custodian at a nursing home. Only to the dying does he reveal his powers, making their transition from one life to another a blessing. Just go to sleep, he think-talks, it doesn\u2019t end here. The sobriquet \u201cDoctor Sleep\u201d fits Dan well.

Like Dick Hallorann (here played by Carl Lumbly), the chef and fellow-\u201cshiner\u201d at the Overlook hotel, once mentored young Danny and showed him how to defeat the ghosts that followed him to Florida, Dan establishes ESP contact with a young girl, Abra (Kyliegh Curran), who is hounded by a fellowship of soul-eaters.\u00a0

This rag-tag team of murderous travelers, The True Knot, \u00a0is led by Rose the Hat. One of Stephen King\u2019s creepiest characters, she is played with frightening determination by Rebecca Ferguson, a talented actress earning her breakthrough in the BBC series \u201cThe White Queen.\u201d\u00a0

Dan and Abra eventually meet in real life.\u00a0 They must combine their ESP talents to defeat The Knot, and the road to do so will lead Dan back to the Overlook hotel, where his childhood self unleashed monsters.

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Dan communicates with Abra.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have to wake it up,\u201d he mutters, enters the decrepit hotel, finds the boiler room \u2013 and the scene is set for another ghost hunt. The exterior of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, a rustic depression-era project built and furnished by local artisans, again looms threateningly as the Overlook. \u00a0

Mike Flanagan effortlessly builds a believable bridge between \u201cThe Shining\u201d and \u201cDoctor Sleep.\u201d

Each story has its own set of ghosts, but it makes sense for them to merge.

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Rose the Hat and Abra (Kyliegh Curran) face off.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ending of \u201cDoctor Sleep\u201d is different in the movie, but it\u2019s an acceptable ending.

Standouts in the terrific cast: Cliff Curtis as Dan\u2019s friend and human mentor Billy, and Zahn McClarnon and Emily Alyn Lind as Rose the Hat\u2019s particularly nasty followers.

I\u2019m not sure how many books Stephen King has written \u2013 Google says \u201cat least 95.\u201d Almost 50 have been adapted for movies and TV.\u00a0 To me, \u201cDoctor Sleep\u201d is right up there with \u201cCarrie,\u201d \u201cThe Dead Zone,\u201d \u201cThe Shawshank Redemption,\u201d and \u201cStand By Me.\u201d

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In her review, Mercy talks King, while reflecting on the Kubrick adaptation that preceded this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[105,1819,175,1227],"class_list":["post-8030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-horror","tag-mike-flanagan","tag-stanley-kubrick","tag-stephen-king","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8037,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}