NEEDFUL THINGS

With this movie AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE meets up with one of Stephen King’s movies. Big Steve’s track record with movies before this one has ranged  from the okay, to the completely stupid. The question is this: where does Needful Things go. Going in I expected it to be a complete bore. I mean, this movie is long.

Needful Things threw me a curve ball by inventing a whole new category for the Stephen King movie: The somewhat good.

The story goes something like this. In the small Maine town of Castle Rock a quaint little shop called Needful Things opens up, and man this place has everything. I mean everything! What ever you desire is in stock. And the owner, one Mr. Leland Gaunt (played in style by Max von Sydow) is always ready to make a deal with you.

And boy, are his prices cheep. Monetarily speaking. Mr. Gaunt usually has you pay in two parts. Once with money, and the second time with a. . .small favor. Just a little prank usually. Like, say, spreading turkey crap on someone’s clean linen sheets. Or, breaking the windows of someone’s house with apples. Or, even better, skinning someone’s dog.

What are all these harmless pranks out to accomplish? Well these pranks stop being harmless pretty quick as the old grudges that brew in ever bit of small town America (at least in a Stephen King novel) begin to ignite, until the entire town is plunged into chaos and starts to look more like Los Angles then Castle Rock.

"A few murders, some rather lovely explosions," Mr. Gaunt says. "Not my best work, not by a long shot."

If you’ve read the book then you already know what both I, and the movie, hints at throughout: That mister Leland Gaunt is the devil.

And unlike other "Devil in the modern world movies," this movie just comes out and says "Leland Gaunt is the devil." Very straight forward, very commendable.

Actually the movie doesn’t say it, Ed Harris says it. He plays Allan Pangborn, the town Sheriff and the one man in Castle Rock not lured into Gaunt’s trap of hatred. And he plays the part well too. He steadily begins to wonder what's going on through half the movie and then starts to loose his own sanity, but soon becomes the only sane person in the whole town.

Max Von Sydow is, and always will be a great actor in my book. And he plays one of the best cinematic devils I have yet to see. Rent this movie for no other reason then to see him act.

To say anything more would spoil a lot of fun for you, the movie goer.

But this does raise some questions, not the least of which is, "Why would the devil go to all this trouble to steal souls? He is the devil after all. Why can't he just take 'em?"

Well, there's nothing in the movie that says he can't, but its not really explained ether. The only real reason I can come up with is simple boredom. I suppose just stealing souls would get a bit dull after you've been doing it for a few thousand years.

But, be warned, this isn’t a 5 G movie. Though the acting is good throughout the ending is a bit to touchy feely for me. As one of the townsmen says "You all sound like a fucking AA meeting". And this movie is looooooong! Whoa! Thankfully, its available in a 2 and 3 hour version, just to serve you better. I personally prefer the 3 hour one, simply because is gives more time to develop the characters. But, since both version have equal amounts of Max von Sydow’s Leland Gaunt in them (when cutting the tape for video Tri-Star didn’t touch his scenes, they felt he was just to good. They where right) they’re both worth your rental price.

RATING(OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)

A LITTLE LONG TO GET THE FULL COUNT

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