Needful Things (1993)


It is rare when a movie is better than the book it is based on.  Normally whittling the story down to fit in a two-hour format means consolidating characters, removing subplots and excising entire scenes.  Often with Stephen King it also means removing content that would result in the movie never finding distribution.  

I don't remember much of the latter in Needful Things since it has been a long time since I read it, but it was never one of my favorite books by King.  He went through a long period where editors seemed afraid to say no to him and, though many of his books maintained a level of quality and even improved in style once he kicked his bad habits, much of his '90s output is quite bloated.  This story takes the "strange curio shop" trope to an extreme, and what screenwriter W. D. Richter did is remove a good bit of that extra fat to concentrate on the main story within.

A new resident of Castle Rock, Maine named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) opens a shop called Needful Things and quickly begins building a customer base for his antiques.  He seems to have a number of things that people want or desire, many with magical properties that help fulfill something missing in their life.  While he does take cash the main payment comes in the form of playing a prank on an individual.  

This begins with a boy named Brian (Shane Thomas Meier) who, for a signed baseball card, throws mud on the sheets of a temperamental turkey farmer named Wilma (Valri Bromfeld), who believes that it was done by a shy widow named Nettie (Amanda Plummer).  Meanwhile, Nettie believes that Wilma intends to kill her dog, which local drunk Hugh (Duncan Fraser) does for an old letter jacket.  Danforth Keeton III (J.T. Walsh), the mayor and used car salesman, becomes particularly embroiled as he tries to cover up his misappropriation of town funds for gambling, while Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Sam Harris) just tries to hold together a community that is quickly unraveling, much to Gaunt's pleasure.

Even more than most of King's material Needful Things is a bit of a dark comedy.  It was also an attempt to destroy Castle Rock so that he could move on from placing stories in the fictional town, but the movie focuses more on the comedic aspects, with J.T. Walsh going nuts in an entertaining manner and Max von Sydow playing a villainous role but not having to take it too seriously.  Sam Harris is always good at playing authority figures, and Bonnie Bedelia plays his fiancé Polly, although her role is sadly underdeveloped from what it was in the book.  One of the few things that I thought was missed was the true nature of the amulet Gaunt gives her to combat her arthritis, as the movie is missing quite an interesting reveal. 

While quite comic this is also quite violent, notably when the rivalry between Nettie and Wilma comes to a head.  It does feel a bit rushed in places despite its running time, which in this case flies by. There is also a three-hour cut that was made for TBS and TNT with a bit more character development and a number of scenes that were cut from the theatrical release.  From what I understand it improves the film but doesn't make the mistake of adding back many of the tangents from the book.  I still find the movie to be quite enjoyable as it is and have since I first saw it in the theater.  If there is a movie that critics got wrong, and still do, it is this one.

Needful Things (1993)
Time: 121 minutes
Starring: Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, Max von Sydow, J.T. Walsh
Director: Fraser C. Heston 

 

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