Review: Doctor Sleep

Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) has survived the events at The Overlook, but grown into an alcoholic wreck who tries to suppress his ‘Shining’ ability. He’s given a leg up by recovering alcoholic Billy (Cliff Curtis) and given a place to stay while they attend AA meetings. Finding a job as an orderly at a hospice, he finds himself an affinity for calming the nearly-departed, becoming ‘Doctor Sleep’. Out of the blue, Danny starts to receive psychic communications from a young child named Abra (Kyliegh Curran). Abra has become aware of a group of demonic psychics called The True Knot, and their gleefully evil leader Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson). Unfortunately, The True Knot become aware of Abra too, and it’s now up to Danny to muster up the courage to once again use his gift to protect her from these sociopathic, otherworldly soul-suckers. Carl Lumbly turns up in flashbacks as Danny’s old ‘shining’ pal Halloran.

 

I don’t envy the task writer-director Mike Flanagan (the underrated “Oculus”) had here with this 2019 adaptation of the Stephen King novel. Here he needs to account for there being fans of King’s “The Shining”, fans of Kubrick’s very different “The Shining” (I consider it a near-masterpiece), and King’s “Doctor Sleep” all in the one film. I think he manages to pull it all off very well in what I consider to be one of the best films of its year. Depending on your own perspective, you might view the film differently, but I think given the different audiences and viewpoints Flanagan likely had to keep in mind while making the film, I think he’s done a pretty terrific job.

 

The opening music and images give a chilling reminder to 1980 and Kubrick’s version of “The Shining”, and we’re treated to a pretty dead-on recreation of the ‘kid on the tricycle’ from that film, aside from obviously the kid not being the same actor from 1980. I also have to commend Flanagan for the inspired casting of Carl Lumbly as Halloran for a few scenes. He’s the best replacement for the late, great Scatman Crothers humanly possible. He’s not got quite the same ebullient presence Crothers had, but he certainly sounds enough like the man to get the job done. When we meet Danny Torrance as an adult, to say he’s a violent mess would be an understatement. Played by Ewan McGregor, it’s actually a remarkable performance in that he’s very visibly Ewan McGregor, but he gets inside Danny’s skin so well it doesn’t feel like McGregor. I don’t normally think of McGregor as a chameleon actor, he’s normally more of a roguishly charming movie star, but here he gives a performance unlike any other in his career. Danny’s an absolute wreck. Think about what happened to this man so early in his life and what his gift/curse is…your likely two choices would be topping yourself or turning into a wreck like Danny has. It’s sad and inevitable that Danny would end up ‘Doctor Sleep’. It’s actually quite a sad film and one with quite a bit of character depth, especially the first half which focuses a lot on the rather tragic, tortured Danny.

 

As terrific as McGregor is as the grown-up Danny Torrance, I’ve gotta say he gets bested – and by a surprising source. I’ve always felt Rebecca Ferguson a frosty and bland presence on screen, but as the unabashedly evil Rose the Hat, she acts out of her skin. Although she and her brethren are afforded a smidgen of pathos by their mortal fate, Rose the Hat is truly gleefully – and rather ravenously – evil in a manner that I don’t think has been quite as effectively captured on screen in a very long time, if ever. At one point, Lumbly’s Halloran describes these evil entities by saying ‘They eat dreams and drink pain’. It’s a really great, horrible-sounding line describing their malevolence. Rose the Hat and her brethren take the film away from “The Shining” (any version) and move it more towards other King tales like “The Stand” and “The Dark Tower”. This film at times shows what the dreadful film version of “The Dark Tower” could’ve been, perhaps. In fact, as much as I enjoyed a lot of the call-backs to Kubrick’s “The Shining”, I reckon the film is at its best when it’s either the sad character study of the grown-up Danny Torrance taking centre stage, or dealing with Rose the Hat and that story. To that end, Danny’s a lot more interesting in the first half of the film than the second, which is more plot-focussed.

 

This film really jumped up and surprised me in the best way possible. Although nowhere near as good or scary as Kubrick’s “The Shining”, this film is still rather creepy, unsettling, fascinating, and actually rather moving. Pacing is an issue, but for the most part I think this is one of the best King adaptations in years. It’s certainly light years ahead of “The Dark Tower”, which it occasionally resembles. Ewan McGregor and especially Rebecca Ferguson are outstanding.

 

Rating: B