Everything's Eventual

As a Stephen King fan or in his own words "constant reader", I have read all King's books and a lot of his unpublished works. I was part of a movie festival where Dollar Babies were screened, and with very few exceptions, I have watched all of them. Some, such as "Stephen King's Gotham Cafe", the animated "Home delivery" and Frank Darabont's "The Woman in the Room", were awesome. But the majority are poorly made, low-budget productions. King himself might have summed it up best by saying "In many cases, one viewing was all a person could bear…" Then I watched Everything's Eventual, which starts a new timeline in the SK adaptations.

I can't even compare this movie to a dollar baby (and I'm not just talking about the running time). It can all be summarized in one simple concept: It's extremely professional. The adaptation is PERFECT, it has all the little details covered, and after I finished watching it the first thing that came to my mind was "This is a movie that could be on the theaters tomorrow".

I know I'm not the only one who was looking forward to this movie with great anticipation. Every single person who looked at pictures on the Facebook group, watched the trailer, and followed the production of this movie agreed that it looked like a Hollywood film at first sight. So when I had the pleasure of watching it for the first time, I sat and prepared myself to watch one of the (if not "the") best dollar babies ever made. And when it ended and the credits stopped I realized that I didn't watched the best dollar baby ever made, but one of the best adaptations ever (I'm talking about the Hollywood movies).

Let's not comparise it against low budget adaptations like Graveyard shift, or The Mangler. Let's take an adaptation related to Everything's Eventual's story: "Hearts in Atlantis", which has two wonderful actors, a really good budget, and adapts one of the best Stephen King books. The result? A forgettable movie. Far from J.P. Scott's Everything's Eventual.

The first thing that amazed me was the quality. Again...when you watch Dollar Babies, with the exception of a very few, you know you're watching a Dollar Baby. Here it "felt" like a theater movie. EVERY SINGLE DETAIL has been covered! People familiarized with the story will smile when small details of "Dinkymail" make their appearance, or when a certain big yellow 57 Chevy shows up.

The actor's performances are perfectly balanced and they portray the true essence of the characters they play. This is especially true with 2 of the film's leads, Dinky and Mr. Sharpton. Mr. Sharpton, played wonderfully by Joe Jones was particularly exceptional. Joe reminded me of another great actor, Liam Neeson. Even Joe's voice sounds very much like him. All the performances are the accurate to the character's in the original story. You're watching them and you think "Yes...this is how Dinky, Sharpton and the rest were supposed to look and act like".

Music and sound effects are another of the high points of the movie. They sound accurate and balanced. In all the scenes they contribute to increase the suspense and tension to a maximum point. But the suspense can't be held only by music, and this is where the direction, camera, and lightning make it perfect. The camera management it's perfect, whether it's a close up or a dolly shot around Dinky working at his computer. Everything is as balanced as the rest of the movie and it reaches the perfect climax at the perfect moment...when the screen slowly fades to black.

The only thing left is to send my congratulations to director/producer J.P. Scott for making such an incredible movie! It was beyond my best expectations (and I really had high ones!).

Now I only hope he works on another Stephen King work....or many!

Many King readers know by now that King makes a special deal with amateur/student filmmakers. For a symbolic $1 they can adapt a Stephen King short story to film as a so called "Dollar Baby". These films can only be exhibited at school presentations and/or film festivals and may not be commercially distributed. Most amateur filmmakers who make a dollar baby create a mediocre film with a minimal budget. But every now and then a very talented filmmaker stands up to create a true masterpiece. J.P. Scott, who adapted the story "Everything's Eventual", did just that. J.P. showed his film to King, who was very impressed by the film. So much in fact that he offered J.P. the chance distribute the film theatrically. Furthermore, King gave the film to 3 major distributors to consider the film, including Summit, Overture and Lion's Gate. Unfortunately, all three decided not to release the film in cinema's, which means the film can now only be seen at film festivals around the world.

My opinion: Right from the start you'll know that Everything's Eventual is something special. The beautiful images, the fine acting and especially the ominous music make this a film that is expected of most Hollywood-King films. Stephen King's story is followed pretty closely, but isn't told in the same order. Also, a couple of subplots have been added to the story. Especially Pug, an old childhood friend of Dinky's, plays an important role in the film, where the short story only mentions him a couple of times. Add this to the fact that this is the first dollar baby to be feature length, it really gives you the feeling you're watching a Hollywood movie. My only comment to the film is that the acting is not quite up to par in a couple of scenes: it's really not that big of a deal though. Should you get the chance to see the film somewhere, be sure to do so! I promise you won't regret it.

Ending score: 8.5

Danny Paap Stephen King Fanclub Netherlands