Dreamcatcher (film)

Dreamcatcher
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lawrence Kasdan
Produced by	Lawrence Kasdan Charles Okun
Screenplay by	William Goldman Lawrence Kasdan
Based on	Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
Starring	Morgan Freeman Thomas Jane Jason Lee Damian Lewis Timothy Olyphant Tom Sizemore Donnie Wahlberg
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	John Seale
Editing by	Carol Littleton
Studio	Castle Rock Entertainment Village Roadshow Pictures NPV Entertainment Kasdan Pictures WV Films II
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	March 21, 2003
Running time	136 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$68 million
Box office	$33,715,436 (Domestic) $75,715,436 (Worldwide)[1]

Dreamcatcher is a 2003 film adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name. It was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and co-written by Kasdan and screenwriter William Goldman. The film stars Morgan Freeman as Colonel Abraham Curtis, a shoot-first alien hunter, Thomas Jane as Henry Devlin, Donnie Wahlberg as Douglas "Duddits" Cavell, Jason Lee as Joe "Beaver" Clarendon, Timothy Olyphant as Pete Moore, and Damian Lewis as Gary "Jonesy" Jones. It was filmed around Prince George, British Columbia.

Plot

The film depiction of "The Ripley"

Henry (Thomas Jane), Beaver (Jason Lee), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Jonesy (Damian Lewis) are four lifelong friends on their annual hunting trip in Maine. As children they all acquired telepathy, which they call "the line". A flashback shows them save and befriend a mentally deficient boy named Douglas "Duddits" Cavell (played, as a boy, by Andrew Robb; as an adult, by Donnie Wahlberg) from bullies.

Jonesy sees Duddits across a street, who beckons him to cross the street where he is struck by a motor vehicle. His injuries heal with mysterious speed and 6 months later, he makes the annual trip. Jonesy and Beaver meet a lost man named Rick McCarthy, apparently ill, and let him rest in their cabin. Mysterious helicopters fly over and announce that the area will be quarantined. Jonesy and Beaver return to the cabin and find Rick dead in the bathroom, and reddish moss and gore all over the walls. His body excretes a creature into the toilet. The mystifying creature is later referenced as a worm and the reddish moss as The Ripley, after the character of the same name from the Alien franchise. Beaver tries to trap the creature beneath the toilet lid, but the lamprey-like worm, with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth, overpowers and kills him. Jonesy escapes but is met by a large alien, called Mr. Gray, who enters Jonesy's body and possesses it.

Nearby, Henry and Pete nearly run over a frost-bitten woman, one of Rick's hunting party. Henry leaves to get help while Pete stays with the mysterious woman. The woman dies and excretes a worm, which Pete barely manages to kill. Mr. Gray then captures Pete, but Jonesy telepathically warns Henry to stay hidden.

Henry returns to the cabin to find Beaver dead and finds the worm that killed him laying a bunch of eggs. In order to kill the eggs and larvae that have already hatched, he sets the cabin on fire.

Meanwhile, a secret military unit, led by Curtis (Morgan Freeman), seeks to contain, and eventually kill, everyone exposed to the alien plague. Curtis sends Owen (Tom Sizemore) to lead an air strike against the aliens' landed spaceship. The aliens use telepathic abilities to try to confuse the task force, but the four Apaches and Curtis' Little Bird massacre most of the aliens on the ground with a minigun, chain guns, and Hellfire missiles. The aliens then release an explosive force which destroys some themselves, their spaceship, and a few helicopters. When the remaining helicopters return to base, Henry is also brought to the base. Henry sees Owen and convinces Owen to reveal the camp to the regular U.S. Army. After tracking Owen through a chip in the gun, Curtis escapes in a helicopter.

Jonesy explores a metaphorical warehouse of his own past memories while watching Mr. Gray use his body. Mr. Gray tries to coerce Pete to cooperate, then eats him when he refuses. Jonesy realizes that his mind contains memories of Duddits' that would help Mr. Gray with his scheme, and therefore hides them deeper in the warehouse of his subconscious.

Henry and Owen arrive at the home of Duddits, who reveals that Mr. Gray is headed for Quabbin Reservoir to pollute the water with a shit-weasel. Arriving at the reservoir, Owen is ambushed by Curtis' helicopter. Owen shoots Curtis down, but dies from his wounds. Henry takes Owen's weapon and kills Mr. Gray's worm. Duddits confronts Mr. Gray, who finally exits Jonesy's body. Duddits turns into an alien creature himself and attacks, causing both aliens to explode in a cloud of red dust which briefly resembles a dreamcatcher. Jonesy, now back to normal, smashes a final larva that was about to contaminate the water.

Relation to the book

The basic content of the movie follows the original book, except for the ending. In the novel, while Duddits does have telepathic abilities and hands them down to his four friends; he is not an alien himself. He dies from his illness on the way to the reservoir with Henry and Owen. Jonesy apparently kills Mr. Gray while the latter is still occupying his body. Col. Curtis is known as Col. Kurtz (a reference to a character from the novella Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now) in the novel.

Reception

The film was poorly received by critics, earning a 30% "rotten" rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.^[2] Mick LaSalle's review for the San Francisco Chronicle summed up the film as "a likeable disaster,"^[3] whereas Richard Roeper commented that "not since Death to Smoochy have so many talented people made such a mess of things."^[4] Although often considered a flop, the film broke even on its estimated $68 million budget, earning only $33,685,268 domestically, but $75,715,436 worldwide.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Dreamcatcher at Box Office Mojo". http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dreamcatcher.htm. Retrieved October 5, 2010. 
2. ^ "Dreamcatcher - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dreamcatcher/. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 
3. ^ "Touched by an alien / 'Dreamcatcher' wrestles with emotions, monsters". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/03/21/DD270699.DTL. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 
4. ^ Ebert and Roeper
5. ^ "Dreamcatcher (2003) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=dreamcatcher.htm. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 

External links

• Dreamcatcher at the Internet Movie Database
• Dreamcatcher at AllRovi
• Dreamcatcher at Metacritic
• Dreamcatcher at Box Office Mojo