Stephen King is capable of writing fiction of some merit, but seems to be drawn to churning out schlock. This film is based on a novel that falls into the latter. The story revolves around King's analysis of this dichotomy; a promising subject could have resulted in an intelligent analysis of themes of academia vs. Entertainment; creativity vs. Commerce and passion vs. Necessity. Sadly, we are given a superficial modern riff on the old Jekyll and Hyde story, replete with cliché and heavy-handed metaphor.
An author decides to kill off his commercially successful pseudonym and come clean in the press, resulting in a spate of murders committed by someone matching his description and fingerprints. A few additional elements are brought in to liven up the predictable story (a childhood twin/tumour that eventually ends up being a redundant dead end and a swarm of sparrows whose specific nature is only vaguely alluded to) but only result in cluttering an already confused story. It all leads to an interminably boring face-off, the inevitable result of a film utterly lacking in suspense and tension.
I felt sorry for the cast, who turned in some good performances trying to wrangle some bland dialogue and inject some integrity into this hokey story. But nothing sparks. Romero probably could have done more to cut down the script and improve the pacing, but at the end of the day there's not much that can be done with source material this bad. Because of the proficiency of direction, acting etc. This isn't a bad film, but it is, sadly, a very disappointing film.
An author decides to kill off his commercially successful pseudonym and come clean in the press, resulting in a spate of murders committed by someone matching his description and fingerprints. A few additional elements are brought in to liven up the predictable story (a childhood twin/tumour that eventually ends up being a redundant dead end and a swarm of sparrows whose specific nature is only vaguely alluded to) but only result in cluttering an already confused story. It all leads to an interminably boring face-off, the inevitable result of a film utterly lacking in suspense and tension.
I felt sorry for the cast, who turned in some good performances trying to wrangle some bland dialogue and inject some integrity into this hokey story. But nothing sparks. Romero probably could have done more to cut down the script and improve the pacing, but at the end of the day there's not much that can be done with source material this bad. Because of the proficiency of direction, acting etc. This isn't a bad film, but it is, sadly, a very disappointing film.