Cast: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Timothy Olyphant, Donnie Wahlberg
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Producers: Lawrence Kasdan, Charles Okun
Screenplay: William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan, based on the novel by Stephen King
Cinematography: John Seale
Music: James Newton Howard
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
In a development that maintains a longstanding tradition, Dreamcatcher is the latest book-to-screen adaptation of a Stephen King horror novel that proves to be, in a word, horrific. That is not meant as a compliment. It is somewhat mystifying that Hollywood heavyweights like Lawrence Kasdan and William Goldman could be involved in such a lackluster project. (Goldman might do well to heed the proverb about people living in glass houses not throwing stones. After laying an egg like this, who is he to cast aspersions at the likes of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese?) Evidently, King's horror novels do not translate well into the cinematic medium. Even Stanley Kubrick couldn't manage it. (His version of The Shining, while boasting some interesting qualities, is essentially an incoherent bore.)
Part of the problem with Dreamcatcher has to do with the filmmakers' unwillingness to make liberal cuts. So they try to shoehorn a large amount of material into a bloated 136 minutes. The predictable result is a confusing story that lacks stability in tone, style, and pacing. Character development is shallow and unconvincing. And the narrative seems cobbled together from elements of nearly every imaginable creature feature science fiction/horror movie ever made, with special nods to Alien and The Thing. Granted, originality is not a requisite for this kind of genre picture, but at least Dreamcatcher could have done something in a unique or unusual way. Instead, the movie feels like a shopping list of recycled clichés. Even the most successful scene, which takes place in a bathroom and does a decent job of building suspense, is partially undone because the focal character becomes inflicted with the fatal syndrome of horror movies – the "let's do something utterly idiotic" disease. Are toothpicks that important?
The narrative is split into two pieces, with occasional flashbacks to fill in a few blanks. (The decision to make the flashbacks recall Stand By Me is a huge mistake; Dreamcatcher looks even worse because of the comparison.) Four best friends – Henry (Thomas Jane), Beaver (Jason Lee), Jonsey (Damian Lewis), and Pete (Timothy Olyphant) – meet as they do every year, in an isolated New England shack in the dead of winter. Friends since childhood, these four men share a deeper than normal bond. They can read each other's thoughts. This year, death has come stalking them in the form of an extraterrestrial that gestates in the stomach of a host before bursting out to cause havoc. And, another form of the alien can take over the body of any human being it chooses.
A covert branch of the government, the super-secret "Blue Unit," is on the hunt for this alien. Led by Colonel Abraham Kurtz (Morgan Freeman), the anti-ET military's version of Captain Ahab, the Blue Unit is charged with tracking down and eliminating this threat. However, when Kurtz goes too far – ordering the deaths of potentially innocent people to stop the threat of the alien "infection" from spreading – his second-in-command, Captain Owen Underhill (Tom Sizemore), balks. This creates a rift in the Blue Unit that even the arrival of a three-star general is unable to repair. Of course, this part of the story eventually dovetails with that of the four friends, but the resolution is anticlimactic.
It's pointless to wonder why an actor of Morgan Freeman's caliber would appear in such a poorly execution motion picture. A paycheck is a paycheck, and Kasdan has a solid track record. Unfortunately, in this case, something went horribly wrong. Maybe it's because Kasdan is more at home with smaller, character-centered dramas. True, he's no stranger to the realm of science fiction, having had a hand in writing The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but this is his first time behind the camera for something of this ilk, and he appears to be out of his element. Plus, it's difficult to figure out the target audience. Science fiction fans will find the territory over-familiar and possibly too gory. Horror fans will be lulled to sleep by lengthy passages in which nothing happens. And everyone else will be bored out of their minds.
Some viewers will undoubtedly be lured into the theater by the promise of seeing "The Final Flight of the Osiris." This 10-minute short (shown before Dreamcatcher) is visually impressive, with its nearly-perfect computer-generated rendering of human beings (á là Final Fantasy) and stunning battle sequences compensating for the virtual absence of a meaningful plot. Eye candy in its purest form, this is an ultra-lite appetizer for those who have been desperately awaiting The Matrix sequels, and, to that end, it does its job. There's nothing special here, but "The Final Flight of the Osiris" is substantially better than the feature film to which it is attached, and has the added benefit of a much shorter running length. My advice: if you're a Matrix fan, go for the short but don't stay for the feature. Otherwise, don't bother. Dreamcatcher isn't worth the time, money, or effort. For Stephen King aficionados, it's just the latest cinematic nightmare.
© 2003 James Berardinelli