Doctor Sleep - Review Thread

Well, there's two more things we can agree on.

Adapting a novel into a movie is always a tricky thing, and generally the old adage is that the movie is never as good as the source material. These reasons can vary, but probably the most consistent criticism is that the film, working to constrain itself to a set running time, has to truncate itself to the detriment of plot, characters, or even the theme itself. And yet one of the most interesting caveats to this general norm has always been Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel, The Shining. King hated Kubrick's interpretation, largely because Kubrick eschewed the exposition and general lack of subtlety prevalent in King's works in favor of a ghost story steeped with ambiguity, lack of explanation, and little regard for whether or not the audience fully grasped what was happening or why. To myself and many others who view The Shining as a classic in cinema, this strengthened the film mightily. What's scariest is the unknown, which Kubrick fully understood, and the more in the dark the audience is while still being given enough to work with to understand the basic framework of what was happening the more chilling the events at the Overlook Hotel were. Now nearly thirty years later, director Mike Flanagan of Castle Rock fame has adapted King's 2013 sequel to The Shining, Doctor Sleep, though it's as much a sequel to King's novel as it is a sequel to Kubrick's version. This isn't the first time someone has attempted a sequel to a Kubrick film, though to me it's always a bit misguided to follow in the man's footsteps at all. 2010: The Year We Make Contact isn't a bad film, but it's not a memorable one either and does itself in by attempting to undo the fascinating mystery of 2001: A Space Odyssey by attempting to explain away everything. Doctor Sleep seems to be trying to do the same here, serving as an appeasement to King that leans heavily on the expansion of a sort of Shining universe while also paying direct visual homage to Kubrick's masterpiece. As we know is the case when trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing absolutely no one, which is the definite result of Flanagan's Doctor Sleep. While always watchable, Doctor Sleep is an overly long bore that contains nothing memorable about it, and by attempting to serve as a bridge between King and Kubrick collapses entirely as a noble but laughable misfire.

Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) is now an adult, struggling as an aimless alcoholic while attempting to push out the traumatic events of his childhood that we witnessed in The Shining. He's still plagued by visions of the creepy old woman from the Overlook Hotel (who we see way, way too much of in this film) and memories of his late mother. Danny (actually he goes by Dan now) finds his way to a small town in New Hampshire where he gets a steady job working at a hospice and goes sober, seemingly on track to turn his life around. This is interrupted when he begins communicating with Abra (Kyleigh Curran), a teenage girl who bears some of the most powerful energy levels of the shining that anyone has ever felt. Abra's power is picked up by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), who leads a small group of sinister people that feed off children's shining abilities in order to fuel their sort of immortality. After some ludicrous battles with their group, Dan and Abra determine that the only way to truly defeat Rose the Hat is to trap her at the ultimate resting place of evil: the Overlook Hotel.

I'll start with one of the lone positives of Doctor Sleep by saying that the cast all around do a solid job given the ridiculous and plodding material they're given to work with. I've long been a fan of Ewan McGregor and he works well enough as an adult Danny Torrance. The character never comes off as the tormented alcoholic that perhaps he should be given the traumatic experience he's had, but he's likable enough. Dan is a bit of a stiff overall though, and the attempts at humor in the film generally fall embarrassingly flat. The film is in desperate need of a true foil, and sadly the typical adult-kid buddy dynamic of Dan and Abra doesn't cut it. Ferguson does strong work as the antagonist, but she too is crippled by a one-dimensional character that constantly lives in the absurd and never the compelling. I've long been a fan and critic of King's writing, which often times is rambling and ridiculous making it clear a meager outline was used before jumping in, but here Flanagan is certainly at fault too. The biggest problem with Doctor Sleep is how Flanagan constantly undercuts any room for suspense at every opportunity. We know a trap is being set in this scene because in the previous scene the characters told us they're doing so. We know Rose and her gang are bad because instead of showing them grabbing a child in a pivotal scene, we see them doing it in a useless cold opening instead. Doctor Sleep's lengthy running time is most glaring in these situations, because anyone even remotely surprised or intrigued by the events that occur here probably haven't watched a lot of movies. For a filmmaker looking to follow in the footsteps of Kubrick, Flanagan has left absolutely nothing to the imagination, having characters explain, explain, explain instead of trusting his scenes to reveal themselves. Doctor Sleep is a big jump from The Shining, where now we're living in a sort of mutant world of good and bad guys with the shining power, and it's handled as ridiculously as it sounds, culminating in a completely out of place gunfight (yes, in a movie where we have people with powers we have a full on shootout in the woods instead of them using their powers against one another) that Kubrick would've never allowed. It's silly stuff that needed the right handling to make work, and Flanagan does a terrible job of reigning it all in.

The big selling point of Doctor Sleep is of course the return to the Overlook Hotel, which comprises maybe the last half hour of the film. Does it live up to the promise? No, not at all. Flanagan hits the viewer over the head with the same images over and over (seriously, how many times is the naked old lady in this film?) and while some ventures into the Gold Room and Room 237 initially bring giddy delight, Flanagan fumbles the ball with unimaginative sequences. Perhaps the most egregious is that instead of using archival footage or CGI face replacement, Flanagan casts the roles of Jack Nicholson, Shelly Duvall and everyone else from the original with new actors. While in some ways he was going to be damned no matter what route he ultimately went down, it does not work whatsoever here. The new actors look nothing like the original cast, nor do they muster up any of the big energy they're attempting to mimic. It really just begs the question of why do it at all since the result is such a dismal one. Doctor Sleep doesn't really answer or attempt to answer the events from The Shining, which is fine but also makes one wonder what the point of a sequel was in the first place. So that Dan Torrance can finally confront his demons and achieve peace in his life? It's hard to understand what King or Flanagan are really going for here, but either way there's little getting around how uninteresting and uninspired the whole project comes off. There was certainly potential for something more, even with the silly plot lines surrounding the whole affair, but it feels like little more than any run-of-the-mill bad teenager with powers movie with The Shining loosely sprinkled in.

Given the talent involved and knowing the big shoes that had to be filled, Mike Flanagan should really be disappointed in himself for this one. Nothing is more frustrating than when a director undercuts his own movie, and thus the audience, stripping the film of any dramatic tension in exchange for bad dramatic irony, and that's what Flanagan does time and time again in Doctor Sleep. Kubrick's The Shining is a masterclass in creating tension and narrative while still dabbling in subtle ambiguity. Flanagan's Doctor Sleep is a great example of how to over direct and end up with a completely uninspired film as a result.

5/10 

I watched the directors cut tonight, having never seen the theatrical or read the book.

It drags in the middle somewhat, but Flanagan nails the camera and theme callbacks. The first and third acts are nails, and as bad as Snakebite Andi and and dad were, the guy that played Crow, and Cliff Curtis were great as well as all 3 leads.

Despite the villains being kinda lame as a concept, I thoroughly enjoyed the themes of facing your demons amd how Ewan MacGregor played it.

8/10. So glad I stayed up on a vacation day to watch this.