Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
Cast: Mario Bello, Ann Dowd, Will Harris, Joan Jett, Olympia Dukakis, Jennifer Kydd, Andre Myette, Juanita Peters, Mary-Colin Chisholm, Kim Parkhill, Deborah Allen, Tara Nicodermo, Roland Marko Simmonds, Mike Taylor, Lee J. Campbell, Trina Corkum, Patrick Robert Wong.
The world of suspense, of blood curdling terror and murderous emotion have always been a stocking filler of goodies in which Stephen King, arguably the finest and certainly the most prolific horror writer of the 20th Century has packed away inside the minds of all who have come across his writing yet somehow the man who brought The Stand, Misery and Rose Madder to the imaginations of millions of readers has not had the same good fortune when it comes to seeing his work presented on television; especially when he has been involved in the script of the presented piece.
No matter how much as fan of the author’s writing you might be, to be subjected to the slow purposeless death of The Dome over three seasons when it could have been condensed superbly into one series and then the British network premier of the television film Big Driver being treated with almost insincere disdain leaves a hole in the soul and a worry for any re-imagining of The Stand or It that might find its way into the schedules.
The difference between a book and television, especially when it comes to the writing of such a well respected author is one that can only be defined by the way in which the magic lantern in the corner of the room offers little room for the imagination to flourish. It pulls and shoves the watcher rather than guiding them gently by the hand and in the end the unexpected delight of what could be a sublimely told story of revenge and redemption is in the end a mess to which nobody truly gets out of scot free; let alone the poor viewer who realises just how time can drag when the mood is wrong.
Not even Ann Dowd’s performance as the unhinged resentment-filled Romona Norvell could rescue the film and in the end the viewer might find solace in the fact that she is the first to feel the wrath of a woman wronged.
A television premiere that might have been better shipped back to the States in a large crate, nowhere near the gripping magnetism of what fans of the horror writer could or should expect.
Ian D. Hall