Doctor Sleep (2019)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Dir. Mike Flanagan

I expected an adaptation of a novel that I didn't like to be equally unpleasing, but hats off to Dir. Mike Flanagan, who made a film that's better than the book it's based on.

Not only does it succeed in tightening King's long-winded narrative for the screen, but it does a commendable job at uniting the differing creative points of view that exist in the original The Shining (1977) novel and Dir. Stanley Kubrick's controversial adaption of it.

At times it mimics the tonal language that was so meticulously crafted by Kubrick for his version, through movement, framing and even music, but those moments sit alongside an excellent rechannelling of the Dr Sleep novel.

Furthermore, through changes to the text it bridged the divide between the tethered horrors of the Overlook Hotel and the peculiar Winnebago owners of the present day more cohesively than I feel the source novel did, in part by revisiting past happenings or omissions and mirroring (or repurposing) them in the present, in a respectful and beneficial way.

Unfortunately, a full appreciation of the tapestry of story as it's presented in the film requires a familiarity with all three of the things previously mentioned: The Shining novel, its belated sequel, and the Kubrick film; lacking even one of those will likely result in small but rewarding details being overlooked by the viewer. The film simply wouldn't work in isolation.

It's unlikely to achieve the kind of reverence that Kubrick's film earned, but that's no shame in itself. In more realistic terms, Doctor Sleep at least feels like a proper 'cinema' experience, as opposed to the 'straight to video' vibe that so many adaptations of King's books have.

I'd planned to keep my ramblings short, but it'd be remiss to not make space to praise the cast, all of whom help raise the 'King movie' bar - specifically Rebecca Ferguson as Rose the Hat.