Skip to site content
Tue, Jan 30 at 8:00pm

MISERY

  • Dir. Rob Reiner
  • USA
  • 1990
  • 107 min.
  • R
  • 35mm
  • Assistive Listening
  • Hearing Loop
MISERY

Part of Winter Classics

After a serious car crash during a Colorado snowstorm, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), who claims to be his number-one fan. Annie brings him to her remote cabin to recover, where her obsession takes a dark turn when she discovers Sheldon is killing off her favorite character from his novels. As Sheldon devises plans for escape, Annie grows increasingly unhinged as she forces the author to reshape his writing to suit her twisted fantasies. Adapted from Stephen King’s bestselling novel and directed by Rob Reiner.

“In a way, MISERY is a ghoul comedy. But it's more than that, because it's genuinely, consistently scary. With his enthusiastic direction — the cutting, the odd angles, the unexpected timing — Rob Reiner takes what might have been a static set-up, a couple of people talking in a room, and makes it harrowing.” —Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle (Nov 30, 1990)

“Places ironic literary intelligence in conflict with the whacked-out innocence of fandom, and has a smart subtext of class warfare about it too. The actors are supported by the best kind of writerly craft and directorial technique, the kind that refuses to call attention to itself, never gets caught straining for scares or laughs. Popular moviemaking — elegantly economical, artlessly artful — doesn't get much better than this.” —Richard Schickel, TIME (Dec 10, 1990)