Scene Anatomy 101: Misery
Posted by George H. Sirois on 05.24.2006
She’s a certifiable psychopathic nut job, but she’s a good critic too.
Some of the best movies reveal little bits and pieces about their characters as they go along, surprising everyone involved, maybe even the filmmakers. The more you reveal, the more they are shown to be more than just a cookie-cutter archetype. They become flesh and blood and, despite what circumstances you see them in earlier, there's even a chance you can identify with them.
In the case of the 1990 hit film Misery, we see a perfect example of that in every way, shape and form. We are introduced to Annie Wilkes as she emerges simply out of nowhere, and the fact that she is played by Kathy Bates in her first-ever major role only aids to her coming out of nowhere. Since Bates was only a veteran of theatre, she was able to become Annie Wilkes without the risk of having any previous film baggage that any other star would have brought. Annie finds Paul Sheldon, writer of the best-selling Misery Chastain novels, unconscious and with two broken legs after his car flipped over and crashed during a bad snowstorm.
Annie pries open Paul's car door, pulls Paul out and brings him to her home so she can nurse him back to health. We learn right away that she is Paul's number one fan, and she has read every single one of his Misery novels, knowing them all by heart. She also knows plenty about Paul and how he writes, based on the different interviews he has given over the years, so she knows where he goes to finish up a novel. Considering that Paul is like royalty to her, she's going to treat him as well as she possibly can. She'll have him feeling so good after all of this, that he just might take a liking to her afterwards.
That was the plan, and all was going well, until Annie finished Paul's latest book, "Misery's Child." Misery dies at the end of the book, and this causes Annie to completely snap. First she berates Paul, calling him a lying old dirty birdie. And then she makes him burn the only copy of his finished manuscript, a new book that has nothing to do with Misery. And then she gets the idea to have Paul write a whole new book that will clean up the mistake of Misery's death with "Misery's Return." Annie presents Paul with an old typewriter, and buys some typing paper for him to produce his masterpiece.
However, Annie's plan goes awry when she reads the first chapter of what Paul has written. She walks straight into his room and drops the pages on his desk.
ANNIE: I'm sorry, Paul. This is all wrong.
Paul looks up at her.
PAUL: What?
ANNIE: You'll have to do it over again. It's not worthy of you. Throw it all out. Except for the part about naming the gravedigger after me, you can keep that in.
Paul couldn't help but put in a character called Gravedigger Wilkes, since Annie's the one who's been pressuring him to bring Misery back to life. But these criticisms are throwing him for a loop since… well, isn't she supposed to be just a nurse?
PAUL: I really value your criticism, but maybe we're being a little hasty here.
ANNIE: Paul, what you've written just isn't fair.
Now he's really confused. How is she to know what's fair and what's not? He's been doing this for years. She of all people should know that.
PAUL: Not fair?
ANNIE: That's right.
It seems that Paul's not getting what Annie's talking about, so she takes a step back and decides to tell him a little story. Maybe then he'll see things from her perspective.
ANNIE: When I was growing up in Bakersfield, my favorite thing to do in all the world was to go to the movies every Saturday for the chapter plays.
Almost out of habit, Paul throws out the name for the "chapter plays" that he used.
PAUL: Cliff-hangers.
Not the right time to correct Annie, not when she's this worked up.
ANNIE: I KNOW THAT, MISTER MAN! They also call them serials. I'm not stupid, ya know!
Annie quickly corrects herself and goes into her story. But as she goes, she's talking very quickly and excitedly and getting more and more emotional, until finally at the end she's screaming.
ANNIE: Anyway, my favorite was Rocket-Man. And once, it was a "no brakes" chapter. And the bad guy knocked him out, locked him in a car, welded the door shut, tore out the brakes and sent him rolling to his death. And he woke up and tried to steer and tried to get out, but the car went off the cliff before he could escape. It crashed and burned and I was so upset and so excited, and the next week you better believe I was first in line. And they always started with how they ended last week, and there was Rocket-Man, trying to get out. And the car's coming up to the cliff. And just before the car goes off the cliff, he jumped free! And all the kids cheered! But I didn't cheer. I stood right up and started shouting, "This isn't what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia?! They just cheated us! This isn't fair! HE DIDN'T GET OUT OF THE COCKADOODIE CAR!
Paul has nothing to say after all that, and when he responds, he's much more careful with his words this time around.
PAUL: They always cheated like that in cliff-ha… uh, chapter plays.
ANNIE: But not you. Not with my Misery.
Annie walks back up to Paul, but instead of talking down to him, she crouches down so she can look up to him. It's a great way to build confidence when someone's not up to their full strengths, whatever those strengths may be. She has to remind Paul of what he had written before.
ANNIE: Remember Ian did ride with Dr. Cleary in the last book, but his horse fell jumping that fence. And Ian broke his shoulder and his ribs and he was laid up all night, and he never reached the doctor. So there couldn't have been any experimental blood transfusion that saved her life.
Paul can't admit it to himself, but she's right. He tried to cheat his way to reviving Misery – probably since he was convinced that this book would never be published – and she called him on it.
ANNIE: Misery was buried in the ground at the end, Paul. So you'll have to start there.
Annie knows a hell of a lot more about writing than Paul would have originally given her credit. She's not just another nut job fan, even though she does seem practically certifiable considering everything we've seen her do and say. She even shows traces of her temper while trying to explain what's wrong with Paul's writing. But thankfully for her, and for Misery, she calms herself down enough so that she can explain what's wrong with the continuity.
Paul wisely listens and applies what she told him to his next draft. He decides to heed Annie's instructions, possibly out of fear of what she might do to him if he half-asses it again. Even though he still doesn't think Misery's Return will ever see the light of day, he puts all he has into writing it. He keeps to the continuity of the series, he comes up with twist after twist to keep Annie entertained, and he answers practically every question that was left hanging when Misery died in the previous book.
It turns out the certifiable psychopath's a pretty good book critic. Just don't talk back to her and everything should be fine.
