Bag of Bones

As with all King adaptations, the book is so much better. The nightmares Mike has in the book are just not thoroughly expressed and as scary in this. However, I think it's worth the couple hours it takes to watch it.

I am used to movies/series about books but this is an another case. If I did not read the book I think I do not understand the storyline at all. Because all the necessary and crucial relationships are missing in this mini series. This series could be longer than a 2 episode series. Because 2 episodes did not provide the background of the story as it should. I know book based products are different and should be than the books itself but this is an exception. If you really want to understand wats going on you should read the book. After you read that it is enjoyable to watch and criticize the series.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Novelist Mike Noonan (Pierce Brosnan) suffers terrible writer's block following the death of his wife and finds himself drawn by terrible dreams in the aftermath to Dark Score Lake, the serene little area where he and his wife own a summer house. He runs into Mattie (Melissa George) a young mother who's locked in a bitter custody battle with local millionaire Max Devore (William Schallert) who has the place in his grip. But Kyra (Caitlin Carmichael) the young girl at the centre of the battle, Devore himself and the tale of Sara Tidwell (Anika Noni Rose) a local blues singer from the 1930s, and the memory of his dead wife are all drawn together in one devastating revelation.

Having very recently finished reading Bag of Bones, I was very eager to see this film adaptation of it, despite Stephen King novels having a poor history of translating in to films, with a handful of exceptions. The warning lights sort of felt on with this one from the off set, but I was willing to give it a chance. While staying pretty faithful to the source material, director Mick Garris has taken some creative licence with some of the material here, which anyone who has read the book will notice. This is just to be expected, though, and fundamentally the film (the first part, anyway) does nothing wrong, with a fairly decent lead performance from Brosnan and a more than willing supporting cast.

The troubles become more clear in the second part, where the translation difficulties become more apparent and the script fails to hold up to the book, from which memorable events appear on screen without half their dramatic impact, which just leaves an impression of lameness. There's also the TV movie constraints, in the shape of some laughable special effects.

It's a shame that the bad stuff lets it down, because a worthy go has been had here and the film is capable of some intense, dramatic writing and style. It's simply a case that, as ever with King, reading the book will be so much better. **

Bestselling novelist Mike Noonan (Pierce Brosnan)'s wife Jo (Annabeth Gish) gets run over in the street. He finds a pregnancy test on her and assumes that she cheated on him since he's infertile. Marty (Jason Priestley) is his literary agent. He is haunted by nightmares of a girl at his summer home on Dark Score Lake, Maine. He goes to stay at the cabin in the wood which had been renovated by his wife. He saves Kyra Devore from getting run over and befriends her mother Mattie (Melissa George). Mattie is in a custody battle with her wealthy father-in-law Max Devore after she killed her husband as he tried to drown Kyra. Mike has visions of a 1930s jazz singer Sara Tidwell.

Many Stephen King stories have been translated onto the screen. This is not the worst but definitely not that good. This could be a good ghost story but it needs to be compressed. Pierce Brosnan is required to fill a lot of space by himself. It does a lot of creepy but nothing actually scary.

Being a fan of Pierce Brosnan, I tend to watch anything he's in. Therefore I was quite surprised that he appeared in a 'made-for-TV' movie (or two-part mini series to be precise). Granted it was based on a Stephen King book, but, in my opinion, I thought Brosnan was 'slumming it' a bit.

Then again, about fifty per cent of King's work has managed to survive the transition from book to film, so I was hopeful. That was until I watched it.

Unfortunately, 'Bag of Bones' comes in the half of King's work which is - most likely (and I have to confess to not reading the book) - better in print than on film. It's simply too slow. Yes, being a two part TV series, it's allowed a little more screen time than a normal ninety minutes film would probably be given and it uses this time for 'character building' purposes. Sadly, I think I speak on behalf of most of the viewers when I say we'd rather have scares and horror than yet another conversation about something pretty mundane.

Like I say, I am a fan of Pierce Brosnan, but I felt his heart didn't seem into this. He plays a writer who loses his wife and goes to retreat to their country house to get away from things and write his next book. It's hardly an original plot on its own and, as you've probably guessed, spooky things start to happen. Only they're not particularly spooky and nothing much happens until the end. There's nothing very unexpected about the film. You can see most things coming and even some of the 'scares' at then end are almost comical in how they're presented (there's a scene with a 'killer tree' that reminds me of something out of the comedy/horror 'Evil Dead' starring Bruce Campbell).

I keep watching Pierce Brosnan's films and I'll also keep watching Stephen King's big screen work. However, I can see why this was made for TV and never made it to a theatrical release.