Written by Mike Flanagan And Jeff Howard
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Jessie: "This monster was real, real as they come. As real as the cuffs, as the dog. As real as the eclipse."
It came to my attention that I had missed something out in my overall viewing of Mike Flanagan's filmography. Yup, there was this Netflix adaptation of a Stephen King book in movie form, featuring some of his regular players.
In this movie, you've got Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood. They're a married couple named Jessie and Gerald Burlingame. Their marriage was on the rock and a weekend away at a lake house was needed to get things back on track for the pair.
Throw in a bit of roleplay, bondage and a scenario that Jessie was growing increasingly uncomfortable with and it appeared that both her and Gerald had much bigger problems to deal with head on. Then Gerald had a heart attack and died at the worst possible time.
For the majority of this film, Jessie's handcuffed to a bed with her dead husband on top of her, a dog that alternated between friendly and feral and worse than that, Jessie's past. With no rescue in sight, she spent a lot of time taking a trip down memory lane while being confined to a bed.
In flashbacks her younger self (Chiara Aurelia) had siblings named Maddie (Adalyn Jones) and James (Bryce Harper) that she wasn't as close to. Jessie also wasn't close to her mother Sally (Kate Siegel) but she was also a victim of abuse at the hands of her father, Tom (Henry Thomas).
Yes, Jessie's past with her father isn't that dissimilar to what Stephen King previously tackled in Dolores Claiborne but there's also the addition of the sinister Moonlight Man aka Raymond Andrew Joubert (Carel Struycken). The character's menacing enough but felt rather underdeveloped in this particular adaptation.
- There's also a plot with the eclipse in flashbacks. Jessie hallucinates versions of herself and Gerald talking to her.
- Carla Gugino would work with Henry Thomas and Kate Siegel a year later in The Haunting Of Hill House.
- Standout music: Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home To Me.
- Chronology: Set in Fairhope, Alabama with a six month jump towards the end of the film.
I can't say I really dug Gerald's Game as an adaptation. It's fine I suppose. Carla Gugino did give a good performance as did Bruce Greenwood but it's themes have explored better in other works by both Stephen King and Mike Flanagan respectively.
Rating: 6 out of 10
