Gerald's Game (2017)

2017 has been a hell of a year for Stephen King adaptations. From big to small screen, they were everywhere but I didn't care for most of them. Gerald's Game sounded intriguing though, and, after reading Dell's review, I added it on my watchlist. 

Jessie (Carla Gugino) and Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) are a married couple who decides to spice things up/save their marriage in their remote lake house. He handcuffs Jessie to the bed and decides to role play. Only things get too intense, Gerald has a heart attack, dies and Jessie, still in cuffs, must find a way out of this impossible situation while confronting the demons of the past with her own mind.

That right there, that last sentence I wrote, that's what made Gerald's Game a very interesting and intriguing watch for me. Because this film isn't really about a woman handcuffed to a bed who has to find a way to escape, we already know that's going to be quite difficult if not impossible (by the way, I loved the way her options were shut down while providing answers to why that isn't possible), but it's all about the main character.

This film/story is indeed a pretty good character study about a person who's gone through a lot of suffering and abuse; a person who isn't only trying to survive but to fight the ghosts from her past that has haunted her all her life, without her even realizing it in order to heal. Carla Gugino is terrific as Jessie, basically carrying the whole movie on her shoulders. She gives such an emotional and quite powerful performance and she delivers the physical and mental struggles of Jessie wonderfully.

Netflix

And now the other great thing about Gerald's Game, its director, Mike Flanagan. He had already blown me away last year with Hush when he managed to make me care for a character and understand her struggles right from the beginning. Well, he did it again and he once again proved what a great filmmaker he is. There aren't a lot of characters in this film and there's even less action, but he still was able to build up an incredible tension and suspense. This guy leaves me speechless every single time.