1408
Plot:
After losing his only child, a jaded author embarks on a quest to find proof of the afterlife. Discovering only charlatans and tall tales he has given up hope when a strange correspondence arrives. A postcard beckons him to a mysterious hotel room, one which is no longer available for occupation, and the manager of the Dolphin Hotel refuses to even discuss.
Comments:
Some
smartass once wrote about the banality of evil. (That would be C.S. Lewis, for
the sake of screenwriters who don't want to do their homework. Or
Hannah Arendt for reviewers who don't do theirs... oops!)
If that's true, than '1408' can be one evil little film. Derivative and
extremely bombastic, the movie does not lend itself well to a shallow viewing.
While the film is not without it's hidden attributes it's a pity that they are
upstaged by large bursts of special effects and noise.
'1408' starts out strong. John Cusack stars as haunted author Mike Enslin. While he's not really all that likable of a character, we can at least scare up some sympathy for his situation. Mary McCormack shines as his estranged wife Lilly, although she really isn't a presence for most of the film. Samuel L. Jackson is good in everything he does (Well, everything where he doesn't have to act opposite Jar Jar Binks anyway.) and here, he's the perfect cherry on the sundae. Jackson's somewhat reserved performance as Olin, the Dolphin's manager, is somewhat of a break with the type of action role Jackson is usually identified with. The juxtaposition serves to only highlight the man's remarkable talent.
The cast is apt, but the script doesn't exactly serve them well. As Stephen King matures in his career I've noticed he tends to dip into the well of his previous work for inspiration. Unfortunately, when print transforms into celluloid exploration tends to morph into cheap carbon copy. This was displayed most egregiously and to the worst effect in 'Rose Red', an inarguably ridiculous mishmash of 'The Shining' meet Shirley Jackson. In 'Everything's Eventual', King's short story '1408' explores themes similar to 'Shining', but through a more intimate psychological prism. Thus the biggest failing of the film is that it eschews the subtlety of King's original writings (in which a sickening yellow light destroys the mind more readily than monsters and gimmicks ever could) and replaces it with cheap jumps and howling fleshy menace.
The
initial tension is well built, but when the film tries to consummate this
mounting mood things start to turn sour. For example, the ghosts show up a bit
too early in the story, and are realized through a overly-tangible discolored
videotape stylization. This worked up to a point in the US 'Ring' remake (and
it's about all that did) but here it just looks entirely weird.
The film borrows Dante's concept of Hell's circular, progressively more
tormenting levels. Nice enough analogy, but the scriptwriter's seem to think
trumping each previous trial involves just throwing a bunch of crap at the
protagonist, hoping to bash his head in. The threats to Enslin's existence
quickly become overtly physical rather than spiritual, not to mention
exceedingly ludicrous. Some bits, such as a mummified guest blocking the
author's escape by scurrying around in the air vents, are a sweet touch, but
when a nautical painting floods the room like a YMCA swimming pool, and the
interior of 1408 is choked by a blinding blizzard, the "bad place"
seems less haunted than it does omnipotent.
The room isn't torturing Enslin's psyche so much as it is battering him around
like a rag-doll. Even ghost stories should have some internal logic, and this
just feels like cheating, and when "what's next" was replaced with
"WTF", I couldn't help but lose interest
It's
a shame that '1408' feels the need to run Cusack through a preternatural
obstacle course, as the film works very well when it's simply content to play
around with everyone's mind. Mikael Håfström's direction is quite good,
betraying shades of 'Jacob's Ladder' and the 'Silent Hill' series. Likewise the
screenplay explores themes such as guilt, hopelessness, and finally redemption.
The deeper one looks at '1408', the more one finds to like; the bones of a very
good movie can be spied under a spotty skin, and no they don't fit together
seamlessly but at least they're there.
While the execution is flawed, the ideas behind '1408' are at least thought provoking. It's not a great film, but it tries to be much better than it is, and that endears it to me much more than 99% of the other nonsense Hollywood shoved at me this year.
6.0