Thinner (1996)

Although the movie adaptation of The Dark Half, like the novel, dealt with the outing of Stephen King as Richard Bachman, few of the Bachman novels themselves have been adapted.  So far it's been The Running Man, which barely resembled the novel, and an upcoming adaptation that is supposed to be closer to the source material.  The Long Run has had its own long run through development hell and still has never surfaced.  Then there is Thinner, the 1984 novel that effectively ended the career of Bachman, although King has occasionally written self-consciously pulpier novels under that name every now and then.

Although the novel contains a comment that this is "starting to seem like a Stephen King book," the author himself purposely tried to separate some of his earlier work from his more refined and popular material.  His writing, however, had too many tells, and by the time he wrote Thinner his early search for a specific style was pretty much over.  It is a bit nastier than other work he was doing at the time, but not by much, considering Pet Sematary was considerably more violent.  The other thing that was different from the earlier Bachman books was that it was more friendly toward a movie adaptation, although that took a bit of time.

Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke) is a lawyer in Fairview, Connecticut defending a mob enforcer named Richie Ginelli (Joe Mantegna).  After a day celebrating winning the case Billy's wife Heidi (Lucinda Jenney) decides to give him a present of her own, only it's while he is driving.  Distracted, Billy hits a Gypsy woman (Irma St. Paule) and kills her.  Though he is cleared of wrongdoing by Judge Cary Rossington (John Horton) and Chief Duncan Hopley (Daniel von Bargen), the father of the woman killed, Tadzu Lempke (Michael Constantine), does not feel justice was served.

Since Halleck is hovering around the 300-pound mark Lempke lays a curse on him, touching him and saying the word, "Thinner."  Billy begins to lose a large amount of weight, concerning his wife, daughter Linda (Bethany Joy Lenz) and his doctor Mike Houston (Sam Freed).  While they search for a realistic explanation it becomes clear that the curse is real, and the tension increases between Billy and Heidi when Mike begins spending a bit too much time with her.  Seeking to lift the curse Billy calls in is favor with Ginelli, and the two begin plans to return him to normal.  

Kari Wuhrer plays Tadzu's great-granddaughter Gina Lempke, who has a larger role in the book.  She is barely here other than as a demonstration of the anger of the Romany clan against Halleck for the death of her grandmother.  The role, unfortunately, is scaled down to acting wild and firing off her slingshot.  Michael Constantine plays Tadzu Lempke with an air of sorrow rather than as a sinister villain.

Instead, it is Billy that comes across as the bad guy, constantly mistrusting of his wife, amoral when it comes to who he defends and showing little to no remorse over the woman he killed or the others affected by Lempke's additional curses.  Instead of contemplating his own faults he blames others and constantly lashes out against them.  Director Tom Holland was understandably upset about having to change the ending of the movie, which followed that of the book, for one that made Halleck's behavior more justified. 

On that end Robert John Burke does a good job of making our protagonist not that likeable.  Something tells me that King had some issue with defense attorneys at the time he wrote the book, or that the general hatred for them defending criminals just lent to an easy bad guy to write a novel about.  The makeup work is well done as well and quite subtle for a good part of the film, although originally they were going to have a more realistic portrayal of his skin hanging off of him.  

Despite all the good this is still one of the lesser King adaptations, as well as one of the lesser Tom Holland films.  This came on the heels of his television miniseries The Langoliers, which was based on a King novella of the same title.  That one is remembered more for the horrid CGI when it should be remembered for the over-the-top performance of Bronson Pinchot.  That kind of craziness is missing from Thinner and, while it's still not as bad as its reputation would have it, it would be interesting to see this given another attempt. 

Thinner (1996)

Time: 93 minutes

Starring: Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, Bethany Joy Lenz, Michael Constantine

Director: Tom Holland