Tags:
Film: Bag of Bones
Year: 2011
Director: Mick Garris
Writer: Matt Venne
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Melissa George and Annabeth Gish
Review:
This film begins with a woman having a vivid dream. She drops her book when she awakes. She is played by Annabeth Gish. Next to her is her husband, played by Pierce Brosnan, who is a famous writer. He asks if she is okay and she says she is. Then he asks if she will write the final line of his book while he dictates it to her, as he has done in the past.
The book is a success and together they are at a book signing. During which Gish tells him that she is going to go get something to eat and she will see him later. She comes out of a store across the street after she buys a pregnancy test and is hit by a bus, killing her.
Brosnan finds out afterward she was pregnant and he is devastated, not only by the loss of his wife, but he was told that he couldn’t have children. This leads him to believe she was having an affair as well. Another problem arises in his life, he is having horrible writer’s block and he can’t get past it.
He has a nightmare one night about his wife being under his bed and being pulled away from him. He then begins to feel her presence and decides to go up to the summer cabin that was left to him by his father. His wife spent a lot of her time while he was engulfed in his writing and he thinks going there will bring him closer to her.
It does, as well as another spirit of a black woman who was around the area in the 40s. He also finds himself trying to learn about what ‘Dark Score Lake Crazy’ means. Brosnan also finds himself in the middle of a custody battle between Melissa George and her late husband’s grandfather. It is over her young daughter.
Can he break his writer’s block? Will he be able to put whatever the malevolent spirit that haunts his house to rest? Will he be able to help George keep her daughter from the horrible old man?
Before I say anything, I read this novel that this was based on it and found it quite enjoyable. With that said, this film is like the cliff notes of that. You get the basic idea of what happened, but there is so much more in the book and it would take too long to put on to film to really do the book justice. With that said, this film is pretty good from what you get from the novel.
I do question Bronsan as Noonan, just because Noonan was from New England and we have Brosnan who is from across the ocean. Gish was perfect as his wife and George was as well as Mattie. I was also pleased with Anika Noni Rose as Sara Tidwell, because what I envisioned of as her was exactly what Rose was.
Now with all that said, this is a good adaptation as looking at it was cliff notes. I understand that the director and writer were trying to fit 1000 of pages of Stephen King’s novel into a 4 hour time slot, an almost impossible task. What they did present was good. There were some creepy parts and we get the main ideas from the novel. Some were changed and I understand as well. Overall, it isn’t bad and is a good solid watch for a ghost story with some real human elements in it.
My Rating: 6 out of 10