Friday, September 29, 2017

Gerald's Game (2017)

I read Gerald's Game years ago, and while I wasn't particularly blown away by it, I remember picturing the Space Cowboy as Matthew McGrory (RIP). I mean, it's scary, right?  Being trapped in a completely logical and non-supernatural way like handcuffs to your headboard.  I live in the city, it wouldn't take long for someone to find me.  This is why I don't mess with the country.

So it's hard to carry a movie with mostly one character, but if anyone's going to do it, it will be sexy mama Carla Gugino, who play Jessie. Jessie and her husband Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) head up to their country house for the weekend to reignite their marriage.  Gerald wants to reignite said marriage with some sort of rape fantasy that Jessie is not on board with.  When he pops a Viagra and they have an argument, he ends up dead on the floor with her handcuffed to a very sturdy bed.

In the most bizarre bedroom in history, much unfolds.  A dog comes by to feast on the dead husband. The ghost of her dead husband and a more competent version of herself guides her through tasks.  And the villain of the story, the "Space Cowboy," makes his appearance.  Meanwhile, in her thirst and isolation-induced mental state, she remembers childhood abuse.

So I feel like these trapped in one location movies can drag, and there were some chatting scenes where I was getting a little bored, but I was legit excitedly yelling at the tv at some parts!  But I just did not like the character of the "moonlight man."  He just looked too fake and ghost-like considering it was supposed to be a real person, and the pivotal shared scene in the end, which should have been eerie, came off almost comical.

Overall, I liked this movie, and Carla Gugino carried it well.  But they probably could have cut out a few minutes of lecturing/chatting, and definitely gone in a different direction with the "space cowboy"/"moonlight man."  But yet another successful Netflix original.  

0 comments: