Alecc B. on "The Mist"

For those of you who don't know, The Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie of all time. Since that film is pretty much perfect, I will give any other film directed by Frank Darabont a chance. Okay, so I never saw The Majestic, but I did catch The Green Mile, which like Redemption, was an adaptation of a Stephen King story, and that was one of the breeziest three hour films I have ever seen.

Darabont has now returned to theatres with The Mist, which was also a work of King. Fear not, this ain't The Fog. However, while being very twisted at times, this flick does manage to drop the ball on more than one occasion.

PLOT

David Drayton makes movie posters for a living. One night, a freakish storm sends a monstrous tree right through his house, destroying the room where he keeps his work. Not only that, the neighbor's tree crashed down on David's boathouse, smashing it to nothing.

So the next day David, his son, and the neighbor all take a ride to the local supermarket to pick up supplies. While there, a mysterious mist begins to engulf the whole town, trapping everyone inside. Fear and paranoia begin to set in, leaving David no choice but to rip off his shirt and yell, "I AM BEOWULF!" Oops, wrong movie.

ACTING

Thomas Jane actually did a good job here as David and didn't make me laugh unintentionally. There are a couple of moments where he gets emotional that reminded me of Mel Gibson. What I mean is that sometimes, when Gibson has to emote, it might feel a little forced but it still works for the scene. Jane manages to pull that off here and is convincing in the more heroic moments as well. As David's son Billy, Nathan Gamble is pretty impressive. We all know kid actors can be annoying in horror flicks, but not this time. Andre Braugher plays David's neighbor, Brent, a hot-shot lawyer from the city. Braugher is always great in any role he takes and delivers once again in this flick. Alexa Davalos plays Sally, a clerk at the supermarket. She's decent in this role. As Sally's love interest Wayne, Sam Witwer plays this troubled military soldier well, although his eyebrows are distracting at times. Marcia Gay Harden takes the role of Mrs. Carmody, the religious nut who believes God is behind all that is happening. She will get on your nerves, but that's not because Harden's performance is flawed, but because the character will really get under your skin and make you want to choke the shit out of her. Laurie Holden plays Amanda, someone who becomes part of David's inner circle and becomes sort of a mother figure for Billy. Holden jumps back and forth with being strong and then afraid with ease. Toby Jones plays Ollie, a supervisor at the market who also becomes David's right-hand man. Jones gives a good performance here and you definitely root for him. Special shout-out goes to Darabont-regular William Sadler hamming it up as Jim, one of the local rednecks.

WRITING & DIRECTING

Frank Darabont played both writer and director for The Mist, and he's hit and miss for both. As far as the script goes, you won't be bored. However, there are times when the dialogue is just not working. I even found myself yelling out lines that would have been more amusing to use, well at least to me anyway. The revelation behind the mist was a bit hokey for me too. There are some tense moments though.

Darabont switched his directing style up a bit with this one, opting for a lot of handheld camera-work that was very effective in building the tension. Considering the fact that this movie was shot on a low-budget (reported: $17 million), I should let some of the weak special effects slide this time around, but there are a few scenes that have just unacceptable CGI for a film coming out in 2007. I would have rather they just not show what the characters are looking at and just get facial expressions from the actors like the movies of old. No lie, some of the special effects are laughable.

Now, there are a few things that save this film from being a disaster. Jane in the lead is one reason to check it out. Another reason is that there are some truly suspenseful sequences, the most uncomfortable one being when some of the folks inside the supermarket put the blame for everything that's taking place on a certain someone. Let's just say things get ugly.

The final reason for seeing The Mist is the ending. You're either going to love or hate the conclusion, but you won't be able to deny how brave it is.

Overall Review: **1/2 stars

Best Line:

Jane: Of course, he's a kid. He's supposed to be stupid. What's your excuse?