Thoughts on BIG DRIVER

Lifetime's "Big Driver" leaves little to be discussed.  Mostly because -- it's not THAT interesting.  It's one of those things that you watch and think, "that was interesting.  I wonder what's on HBO."  It doesn't have a lot of sticking power.  I did not find myself out running or doing daily tasks while I mentally rehearsing Big Driver.  I was not left dwelling on elements of the story.

As with the novella, I  am left totally confounded by decisions Tess makes after she is raped.  Most of it just doesn't make much sense.  The Lifetime version of the novella becomes little more than a toned down retelling of "I Spit On Your Grave."  (And your mothers grave.  And your brothers grave.)

Did I like it?  Shhhh, I can't admit this very loudly.  I did.  I read lots of reviewers who hated it.  I mean, all out hated it!  But I think it's okay.  Maybe it's not much more than a C, but it kept me watching.  This is not cinema with lots of subplots; and it's not a mini-series where characters were able to be fleshed out.  It is a single story driven by one terrible event and the aftershocks.  The characters are pretty shallow, including Tess.  That said, I declare my favorite character to be Tom.

I thought the rape scene was long and drawn out; especially for television.

Things in Big Driver go from having what a real-estate agent might declare as "potential" -- to something more awkward.  "This isn't really working," you start to realize.  And here's the thing; when a story isn't really working, it better at least pull off its main objective.  So this is a story of revenge.  Parts of it don't work.  But as a viewer, I'm a little forgiving of some of those things that don't work, so long as there is some payback given; and that there is. So on a very surface level, it works. In truth, it's not much more sophisticated than an Erector set.

Tess is a crime novelist, so the movie suggests she knows how not to get caught.  I'm a crime expert -- because I watch television -- and I suspect Tess isn't as safe as she thinks she is.   Her biggest safety net is that she lives in the pretend world called TV land, where the police will not look too hard to figure out what happened.  She has a lot of unaccounted for time; she used her gun; she drove her car and she had her GPS on the whole time.  None of this was resolved.

As the movie progressed, a little  too much just worked out for Tess.  She got all the luck; all the information; everything just worked for her.  So, for a revenge story, it was this splendid happy ending.  Which is kind of messed up.  I agree with Brian Lowry, who writes, "the climax . . . is not as satisfying — or for that matter, morally challenging — as it should be." (variety.com)  Thus the show leaves little to think over after it's been viewed.  It was just another block of time eaten up by the glowing box.  But I enjoyed it while the box ate my time.

My wife liked it much more than I did.  She thinks the bloody dead guy who talks (the brother) is reminiscent of Pet Sematary.  I think she's just trying to get me more excited about this film by lumping it with one of my favorite Stephen King works.

So there you have it.  Big Driver has problems.  I liked it.  My wife liked it more.  I'll  probably forget I liked it -- or watched it -- and watch it again and possibly have totally new feelings toward it.

UPDATED: Big Driver, Let The Whining Begin

Don't you love it when a new Stephen King project comes out, and everyone gets their chance to complain?  I'll post my thoughts on Big Driver in a couple days -- until then, here's a summery Sara Stewart's whining from nypost.com.  Her article is titled, "Stephen King’s ‘Big Driver’ stuck in neutral."

• Bello is an engaging presence, but she’s above this material. Ditto Ann Dowd. I can’t say as much for rocker Joan Jett, though it’s still a kick to see her brief appearance as a weathered barkeep with a glass eye.
• “Big Driver” can’t seem to decide if it’s a straight-up thriller or a dark comedy about what writing about murder for years does to a person’s brain.
• It’s a line King often walks with finesse in his stories, but doesn’t always survive the leap to the screen since he’s usually not writing the screenplay.

Stewart nails something that I mentioned when I first read the book; it's hard to believe Tess would respond the way she does to the scenario she's given.  Stewart writes:

There’s an essential implausibility to Tess’ reactions — and while it might, in a different genre, have been amusing to watch her developing an in-depth internal relationship with the voice in her GPS, the fact that it follows a traumatic rape feels way off, tonally.

I wrote in my journal entry about the NOVELLA:

 Tess' reasoning at several points still troubles me. Sorry to mention this. But I was not really convinced on her reason for not calling the police. And, her note to herself, "Don't get caught" . . . but she didn't really carry out much of a plan. She followed an emotion, but didn't execute a flawless play. Instead, she plans backward. that is, she carries out an idea, then figures out how to cover her tracks. 

While the story is dark, the ending is fantastic. King masterfully pulled the strands together. It is dark, but perhaps not as dark as some of the other novella's contained in FDNS.

By the way, I liked the Lifetime movie. More about that later.  What did y'all think?

UPDATED:
latimes.com Mary McNamara has her own share of whining, declaring that King "often" deals with the subject of rape in "long, graphically detailed and brutal scenes."  I wonder who she's been reading!

Check it out:
Carrie, no rape.
Christine, no rape.
Cujo, no rape.
The Shining, no rape.
Pet Sematary no rape.
The Green Mile, no rape.
. . . So what exactly is McNamara talking about?   Well, as is often true of the press these days, it's accusation an without any supporting evidence.

McNamara isn't done trashing King and Big Driver.  She writes, "If only it weren't such a disturbingly retro and sadistically sensationalized take on the subject. If only it were any good at all." And, "The story is simple, manipulative and ghastly." She goes on to say, "this story is so nonsensical that it, at best, exploits its subject matter and, at worst, insults it."  She calls Big Driver, "criminally limited material."  Criminally?  Now here's a reviewer who apparently just needs to just use words randomly without concern for their meaning. Big Driver has "CRIMINALLY limited material" ?

Know what the problem is -- McNamara, and many reviewers, are looking for King's "message" instead of looking for the STORY.  These reviewers aren't along for the ride, they're looking for a cause and a protest, and upset King did not set up a good rally for them.

BIG DRIVER poster looks awesome!

Teaser For BIG DRIVER

BIG DRIVER is headed to LIFETIME

The hollywoodreporter has news that Big Driver will be a Lifetime small screen adaptation.  The article notes that Big Driver marks the first collaboration between King and the A+E Networks-owned female-skewing cable network.

Here's the highlights from the Hollywood Reporter:

• The show will star Maria Bello as Tess Throne.
• She will be joined by Olympia Dukakis, Joan Jett and Will Harris also star in the revenge tale adaptation, expected to premiere this fall. 
• Production begins in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this summer.
• Poduced by Ostar Productions and executive produced by Bill Haber (The Trip to Bountiful) and Jeffrey Hayes (A Day Late and a Dollar Short). 
• The screenplay was adapted by Richard Christian Matheson (Masters of Horror, Happy Face Killer)
• Directed by Mikael Salomon (Drew Peterson: Untouchable).

Finally, the article reminds us that CELL, starring Sameul L. Jackson, is in postproduction.

Short Film BIG DRIVER

FROM www.kickstarter.com

Big Driver is a short film following one woman as she struggles to reclaim her life after a tragic and horrifying event.

Dollar Babies Films is a wonderful project started by Stephen King to allow up and coming filmmakers to legally option some of his short fiction. By using stories published by one of the world's greatest living authors filmmakers are given a unique opportunity to be attached to a project that has instant recognition. This is one such project.

I have been a fan of Stephen King as long as I can remember. One of my first memories was as a four year old, sitting on the edge of my brother's friend's parent's waterbed watching Children of the Corn. I was so enthralled by what I was seeing that I wanted to watch it again the moment it was over. At age eight my parents owned a video store and I would watch horror films in the back room, always loving to see a new Stephen King title cross my path. Christine, Carrie, Cujo, all were childhood favorites. In the strip mall next to the video store was an old used bookstore. Hidden away in the back row of the shop was where I found "IT" at age ten. I would sneak back there every day for more than a month until I finished the book, even if I didn't understand everything I read. I've been a constant reader since then.

It is an indescribable honor to have the opportunity to produce one of Mr. King's stories, and I want to do it justice, but it won't be easy. The money raised here on Kickstarter will go towards feeding cast and crew, renting and purchasing needed equipment, travel expenses for out of state crew, festival submission fees, and everything else that goes into making a short film. The cast and crew will be working for free on this project, but if by chance we are blessed with more than our goal we will use any extra that isn't eaten up by unforeseen production costs to compensate these hard working individuals for their time.

The script is finished and it's time to crew up.
I can't do this alone, and I need your help. Let's make a movie. Thank you.
Kyle Burnett

Full Dark Journal 5: A Good Marriage

I am sure there are spoilers here. I try not to give too much away... but I also think you should not read reviews and essays on books if you haven't read them. If you need a review to tell you to go read this book, then I'll put it right here at the beginning. . . go read this book. There. Now we shall proceed.

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A Good Marriage is a good story.

This is my favorite novella of the four in Full Dark No Stars. I found it genuinely scary. The story often moved in directions I did not expect.

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Darcy Anderson is in a genuine predicament. King masterfully explains why she chooses not to call the police. Not so much an issue of her love for her husband, but her own need for stability. But justice ultimately trumps her own needs.

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Edgar's Ghost

King cites Edgar Allan Poe's short story (weren't they all short?) "The Cask of Amontillado." That's cool, since 1922 had hints of the Tell Tale Heart. In Poe's 1846 story, The Cask of Amontillado, Montresor uses wine to trap his "friend." Montresor literally builds a wall, while Darcy walls her victim in by incapacitating him. In each case, the victim is betrayed by someone they trust.

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Mirrors and Coins:

Both mirrors and coin collecting play important minor chords in this novella. They not only move the plot, but are the kind of details that enrich the story as a whole.

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BTK:

The story is based on BTK . The documentary BTK Killer Next Door starts with this intro: "Known to his neighbors as a Boy Scout leader, a church goer, a family man. . . but a murderer?" That is exactly the angle King takes.

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Blading and pudgy, Bob Anderson even looks like Dennis Raider. Also, Like Raider, Anderson managed to stop for a period of time.

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King picks up on a serial killers inability to feel guilt over their crimes. "Hollow" is how Darcy describes it. He is just a hollow, empty shell of a man. Anderson claims that two men live inside him. After observation, that is not Darcy's conclusion. In essence, she decides that the good man doesn't really exist. It's not Jekyll and Hyde -- it's just Hyde.

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The mystery of marriage was explored more tenderly in Lisey's Story.

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Killers Among Us:

How can serial killers move among us seemingly unknown? I told this before, but it bears repeating. My Grandfather was a pastor. His church had a photo director. One morning I flipped through the photo directory and I stopped on the picture of Bill Suff. He was a serial killer in Riverside and Lake Elsinore, California. He also sang in the choir at Grandpa's church!

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Serial Killers and Stephen King:

My list will be no where near complete, but here is a list of Serial Killers in Stephen King's fiction. Please add to my list in the comments section, and I'll update this post. I'm not counting monsters as serial Killers (ie: Pennywise, Christine, Flagg) or animals (Cujo).

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Under The Dome, Junior Renny

IT, Henry Bowers

The Dark Half, George Stark

Gerald's Game, Raymond Andrew Joubert (The Space Cowboy)

The Dark Tower, The Pusher

The Green Mile, William Wharton ?

Big Driver, Big Driver and Little Driver

A Good Marriage, Bob Anderson

Frank Dodd, The Dead Zone (thanks Eva)

"Springheel Jack" - Strawberry Spring (Night Shift) (Thanks Eva)

The Man Who Loved Flowers (Night Shift) (thanks Eva.)

Lloyd Henreid and Andrew "Poke" Freeman - The Stand (Thanks Eva)

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Wikipedia says this about Annie Wilkes in a discussion about "angel's of mercy": "The character Annie Wilkes in the Stephen King novel Misery seems to be a serial killer of this type." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_Mercy_(serial_killer)

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In IT, King showed a serial killer in league with the devil. Henry Bowers works under the influence of Pennywise. However in more recent works, King appears to be showing us the evil comes from within. It is not so much the work of the devil, as it is the heart itself. This was true of Big Driver, Junior Renny and Bob Anderson.

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However, in IT the serial killer was best portrayed by Pennywise himself. The monster was based on John Wayne Gacey

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Hell:

Holt Ramsey, a retired detective mentions that Anderson is now being punished in hell "according to the Old Testament." That struck me as a strange comment. I know, Ramsey is a detective, not a theologian. But it implies that Hell is an Old Testament doctrine as opposed to a New Testament teaching. However, hell in the Old Testament is simply Sheol, the shadowy underworld of the dead. It is simply not a developed doctrine. Hell is actually a New Testament teaching. It is particularly advanced by: Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), 1 Peter, Jude and The Revelation.

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Uplifting:

I found this to be the most enjoyable of all of the novella's. It was, frankly, uplifting. An encouragement to peer in at Darcy as she deepens in her convictions and carries out revenge. It is a redemptive novel, from Darcy's end. She is able not only to rise above the monster within (the monster is passivity), but also able to crush the monster who lives with her.

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If 1922 and Fair Extension were truly FULL DARK with not even a hint of STARS, I would have to say that we at least get moonlight in A Good Marriage and Big Driver.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRPS0x66ncM

Full Dark Journal 3: Big Driver Mid-Read Confusion

STOP
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If you haven't read Big Driver, don't read this. This is not a synopsis, but I will discuss things in the book that will spoil it for you if you haven't read. If you have read the story, press on!
.You know, don't you. . . the stand was the greatest novel ever written.

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Some Mid-Read Confusion. . .
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I've been listening to Big Driver. It's an interesting listen, because the reader is very naturally charming. But the story is very dark.
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I am finding this to be a difficult read. Namely because Tess constantly makes decisions that seem unreasonable. They're not what... anyone... would do in that situation. But more than that, she makes conclusions that don't make sense. and then, her irrational hunches turn out to be spot on. It's like that Mel Gibson movie -- what if sometimes the crazy peopl are right?
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Tess is a difficult character to identify with. Mainly because of her very strange decision making process. But she is also difficult because she talks to things, and hears them answer. I have not read the ending yet, but I'm starting to wonder if all this is taking place in her head. She talks to Tom (a GPS) and her cat. And both talk back!
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Another difficult thing for this story is the believability of the "bad guys." Why would a Liberian feed her rapist / serial killer son fresh victims? And why would she choose a popular author? Don't serial killers usually choose people who are easily overlooked? Prostitutes, homeless people and so on.
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I didn't understand the process by which Tess came to the conclusion that the Librarian was feeding her son victims (other than her giving Tess directions).
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Every story has to deal with the: "Why not just go to the police?" I just saw that on a TCM documentary. The idea here is that Tess will not go to the police because she doesn't want her reputation to be tarnished. So instead... she opts for a very nasty revenge.
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Am I the only one scratching my head here? I love King's writing, and plotting. . . but sometimes I'm left a little confused. How did we get here? How was that conclusion drawn?