REVIEW: ‘Doctor Sleep’
With so much time to stream movies and TV shows, audiences around the world are looking for the next big thing. What could possibly offer some escapist entertainment for a few hours? One answer: the recent movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep.
This followup to King’s The Shining is an eerie and creepy psychological horror film starring Ewan McGregor as a grownup Dan Torrance, the little boy from The Shining who used to pedal his little vehicle around the hallways of the Overlook Hotel — as his father went stir crazy over his extreme case of cabin fever.
This new story finds Dan trying to live a quiet life in New England while keeping his special power — known colloquially as the “shining” — under wraps. He only allows his true self to be seen to patients in a nursing home who are near death.
But Dan is unable to turn off the world and stay isolated forever. Other people have similar powers, and they are not necessarily using those powers for good. He must team up with Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), whose “shining” is off the charts, and take on a traveling band of evil entities known as the True Knot — all the while he is plagued by nightmares of his experiences from the original novel. In many ways, the Overlook Hotel hovers over every thought he has, and it’s inevitable that his demons will lead him back to where it all began.
McGregor, one of his generation’s finest actors, is the right mixture of understated calm, weirdness and benevolence that this character needs. At his heart, Dan is a good guy, much like he was a good kid, but his powers get in the way of him living a peaceful, forgettable life. While watching McGregor’s performance in Doctor Sleep, one realizes the many talents he has to emote and share his feelings with an audience. He makes something out of nothing because, truth be told, Dan is not a terribly interesting person — other than his shining, of course — so the actor needs to sell that any-ole-guy personality, and sell it well.
Curran is masterful in the young role of Abra. She is like Danny in the original movie — nervous and uncertain about what these powers will mean in the grand scheme of things. In Dan, she finds a mentor, much like Danny found with Hallorann in the original.
Rebecca Ferguson is violent and scary as Rose the Hat, the ringleader of the True Knot; playing against type, she exudes unsettling evil.
Mike Flanagan’s film can feel a bit too long, but fans of The Shining, either the movie or the book, will eat up every last minute. The final third of the film, when Dan must return to where it all began, is like a cinematic gift to an audience that wanted to further explore the outer-reaches of Stanley Kubrick’s mind. Make no mistake about it, Flanagan’s sequel doesn’t come close to Kubrick’s adaptation, but it’s a nice complement — essentially an invitation to use the original text and film as a playground for further storytelling.
King is having several successful projects recently, with the adaptation of It making millions at cinemas and Castle Rock entrancing viewers on Hulu. This interpretation of his Doctor Sleep book continues that success and offers a winning combination of eeriness and uncertainty — perfectly timed for these difficult days.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Doctor Sleep (2019). Written and directed by Mike Flanagan. Based on the book by Stephen King. Starring Ewan McGregor, Kyliegh Curran, Rebecca Ferguson and Carel Struycken. Running time: 2 hours, 32 minutes. Rated R for disturbing and violent content, some bloody images, language, nudity and drug use. Rating: 
