Directed by Mike Flanagan
Doctor Sleep is one of the most difficult to discuss movies I’ve ever watched for this website. Not because it’s experimental or challenging or I didn’t know what was happening, but because so much of what I feel towards the movie is based on my feelings towards Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, the film that this movie is (kind of) a sequel to. The Shining is one of the greatest and classiest horror films ever made, following that without seeming bad by comparison would be a nigh-impossible task. To be frank, I don’t think we ever needed a sequel to The Shining but I will do my best to be fair and discuss Doctor Sleep with an open mind.
THE PLOT!
Doctor Sleep takes place after the events of The Shining in several parts. In the beginning we follow the young Danny and his mother Wendy as they try to rebuild their lives after the horrific events at the Overlook Hotel, but the story doesn’t really dwell there as the main thrust of the narrative is more about Danny’s adult life and how he copes with the bizarre life circumstances he is saddled with. As he attempts to move on, Danny gets sucked into a struggle between a group of people who ‘Shine’ and the people who they want to prey upon who also ‘Shine’. There’s a lot going on off-screen.
Credit Where Credit Is Due.
My introduction was rather wishy-washy but I want to point out that there are many positives to this film. As you may expect from the cast: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Cliff Curtis, there is a lot of talent on screen and though the performances range from serious to campy to scenery-chewing I can say that they all do what they set out to. There’s one great scene in particular where McGregor gets a chance to breathe and let his acting talent shine and that was awesome, but everyone else is pretty much decent.
Slight Tonal Whiplash
One thing that I have no clue whether or not I like it is the absurd tonal shifts and overall campy mood. This is where the Kubrick fan in me starts frothing at the mouth and I have to kind of push that feeling down and admit that typically I like movies that play with multiple moods, especially if they’re included in a way that intentionally clashes, which, oh boy do they ever in Doctor Sleep. Things go from campy to serious to horrendously disgusting back to campy. It is an effective juxtaposition that matches Stephen King’s distinct style and makes each scene feel more extreme.
Conceptually Interesting, Executed Imperfectly
Speaking of Stephen King, I like how much the story is driven by concepts that King likes to play around with. Questions of inherited afflictions, becoming what you hate in your quest to destroy it, what would you do to survive, all of this stuff gets brought up and briefly examined. I say briefly because there is so much happening all the time that the answers to these questions are rarely fleshed out. It is rather disappointing, as I liked a lot of the topics brought up and thought there would be a much more in-depth take on them than there was. Sadly there just wasn’t time for that and that all comes down to one reason: pacing.
The Breakneck Speed of Doctor Sleep
I was not at all a fan of the film’s extremely quick pacing. Clocking in at 2.5 hours, there was a lot of ground to cover and to do that a lot of things had to happen quickly. It did not work for me. There are too many scenes of exposition, too many sequences where tension can’t be built because we need to move on quickly, too many scenes where the important stuff happens in the blink of an eye just so that the story can keep going. The longer Doctor Sleep went on the more this frustrated me and made me wish there were more moments where things were allowed to slow down, build atmosphere and then start up fresh.
(MINOR SPOILERS YOU COULD PROBABLY ASSUME)
Lastly, I know not everyone will have this same problem that I do but I can’t stand when iconic roles are recast and they choose actors who resemble the original actors who played those roles. I know that they’re trying to maintain continuity or whatever but I always just find it distracting, particularly when Jack Torrance shows up and they try to film the actor’s face at weird angles to make him resemble Jack Nicholson. It is only a distraction and I would have preferred they went with totally different actors to divorce this film from The Shining a bit more.
(Minor Spoilers Over)
The Impossible Question: Is It Good?
Whether or not I recommend this movie is a question I’m still struggling with. Part of my struggle is that as a continuation of the story started by Kubrick’s The Shining, Doctor Sleep did not work for me at all. It is so different in every single aspect that it just baffled me. BUT! If you can separate the two, or think of this more as a sequel to the miniseries or the book or anything else, I think you could enjoy the film for what it is: a mostly entertaining and fast-paced dark fantasy with some good performances, some creepy moments, and camp galore. I would somewhat recommend Doctor Sleep, just so long as you don’t think Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a sacred cow that should never be meddled with. Maybe don’t see it if that’s the case. As a final word though I have to acknowledge that Flanagan probably made the best adaptation of the Doctor Sleep novel as anyone could have made. I look forward to his next film.
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