![]() ![]() ![]() Stay with me here: that’s not the issue I had with this movie.Īllow a momentary digression, if you will. The plot zips along, feeling intimately familiar, because it’s been harvested from The Shining. Meanwhile, after a harrowing journey through inclement weather, Scatman Crothers – I mean Oliver Platt – shows up only to be murdered as soon as he crosses the threshold. She retreats back to the house to hide, hoping to trick him into searching for her in the snow. At one point, Watts runs out of the house, footprints peppering the freshly fallen snow, only to double back, retracing her telltale steps. He menacingly drags and swings and wields said ax as Watts and her newly reunited deaf ward cower. I’m not being hyperbolic, and I’m torn between wanting people to experience this for themselves and needing to scream it from the mountain tops, because, huh? Watching the finale of the film unfold without any idea just how committed it would end up was exhilarating, and I don’t want to take that from you, but here we go… Once we find out that the innocuous stepson is the root of all Watts’s troubles, he must smash his way through the locked basement door with an ax. Instead, something magical happened: it became The Shining. After a few jump scares and a massive reveal, what had appeared to be an exploration of a character’s tenuous grip on reality, the supernatural, and mental health is tossed out like bathwater. The boy goes missing, and as a storm approaches, we’re left questioning the sanity of our protagonist.Įxcept we aren’t, because the film tips its hand early. It’s there she begins treating a young deaf boy, played Jacob Tremblay. She runs a psychiatric practice from an office a stone’s throw from her house, and is, for all intents and purposes, a shut-in. Shut In’s potential is vast, and often unexpected, but it seems to flounder at every turn.Ī terrible accident leaves Mary (played by Naomi Watts) alone to take care of her catatonic stepson. Because a repurposed idea isn’t an unforgivable offense, but wasted potential is. All I ask is that you show me something different – something innovative. An idea doesn’t need to be freshly plucked from an ever-blossoming (and non-existent) tree of epiphany in order to be entertaining and effective. Remakes, reboots, and reimagings have simply become part of the cinematic landscape, and while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I’m fine with it. People often proclaim there are no new ideas left. A deeper dive into the grey area between reimagining and homage.
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