Gerald's Game
Gerald's Game
When a harmless game between a married couple in a remote retreat suddenly becomes a harrowing fight for survival, wife Jessie must confront long-buried demons within her own mind - and possibly lurking in the shadows of her seemingly empty house.
rg9400 reviewedNovember 1, 2024
Going through Mike Flanagan's older films, and I think Gerald's Game is one of his stronger earlier works. You can see what he will eventually create in some of the scenes, and I don't just mean when a copy of the Midnight Mass book is thrown early on. This movie isn't particularly flashy to showcase some of the technical prowess of Flanagan, though flashback sequences illustrate his use of color well. There are some good use of prosthetics also. However, this movie is really a showcase for Carla Gugino's acting, often bottled up in a single location and hyper-focusing on her face as she works through a lot of emotions and interior thought processes. She's fantastic and really carries the movie. As for the story, you kind of have to get over the initial premise which feels a bit silly to view it as a way to explore our main protagonist's trauma and relationships. It does that really well before kind of going off the rails in the final minutes, but I will chalk that up to more Stephen King being unable to write a good ending than something specific on Flanagan's end.