When Good Directors Go Bad: Dreamcatcher (2003, Lawrence Kasdan)

Posted by Peter Smith
The setup: After writing the screenplays for The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lawrence Kasdan made his directorial debut with the acclaimed neo-noir Body Heat. He’s worked in numerous genres, but is best known for ensemble dramas like Grand Canyon, The Accidental Tourist, and 1983’s baby boomer favorite The Big Chill. So it seemed a bit odd for him to take on a Stephen King novel.

What went wrong?: A far cry from the relatively straightforward thrillers that made King’s reputation, Dreamcatcher is an ambitious, uneasy mix of story elements — lifelong friendships, disgusting monsters, mysterious powers, and military power gone mad. It begins as a downbeat drama about four childhood buddies, now grown up, dealing with the strange talents bestowed on them in childhood by a fifth, mentally-challenged boy called Duddits. The setup holds such promise that it’s disheartening how far astray the rest of the film goes.  

One problem is how sketchy the protagonists are, distinguished mostly by a single character trait. Thomas Jane’s Henry is suicidal, Timothy Olyphant’s Pete has an uncanny ability to find things, and Jason Lee’s Beaver has an unfortunate compulsion to chew on a toothpick, which ends up getting him killed. The most fleshed-out of the four is Jonesy, played by Damian Lewis, who consequently gets the most interesting character trait — the "memory warehouse," a vast storeroom in his mind. This serves him well when the alien has taken over his body and he has to barricade himself in his mind with the information the alien is searching for.

And let’s talk about those aliens, or as the movie calls them, "shit weasels." It’s bad enough that they’re so disgusting that their every appearance distracts from the story.  But add to that the barely hidden gay-panic subtext — they’re giant, toothy phallic objects who crawl up people’s asses, and the marble-mouthed Duddits pronounces their leader name as "Mr. Gay" — and they become the most odious monsters I’ve seen in a movie in ages. 

But wait, there’s more (oh, how there’s more). There’s the risible military subplot, which could have been jettisoned with little discernible difference. There’s also flatulence as a plot point, turning an allegedly serious film into the fartingest Hollywood movie since Blazing Saddles. And finally, there’s the grown-up Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who confronts "Mr. Gay" with a rallying cry of "Scooby-Dooby-Doo, we got some work to do now," before morphing into an alien and stomping the anally-intruding baddie. Dreamcatcher is the work of talented movie veterans — along with Kasdan and King, there’s screenwriter William Goldman. Didn’t it occur to anyone that this story just wouldn’t work onscreen?  

The fallout:  Dreamcatcher got dumped by Warner Brothers in late March, functioning primarily as a launching pad for the Animatrix short Final Flight of the Osiris. Predictably, the film flopped. Kasdan’s next project is the Tom Hanks vehicle The Risk Pool, which I’m guessing will not contain a scene in which the hero uses a handgun as a telephone. At least, I hope not. — Paul Clark  

For more When Good Directors Go Bad columns, visit:  

http://opalfilmsarchive.blogspot.com/2007/09/when-good-directors-go-bad.html
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Posted Oct 16 2007, 03:00 PM
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Comments

Kent M. Beeson said:

So I'm reading this, and I'm thinking, "Where's the gunphone? He's gotta mention the gunphone! The gunphone is what puts it over the top!" And then I get to the end, and everything is right with the world.

October 16, 2007 8:53 PM

Paul Clark said:

Well, I had to do something to make people keep reading until the end...

October 16, 2007 10:43 PM

LCosgrove said:

"Jonesy? Jonesy, is that you?"

Oh God, I love every terrible minute of this dumb film. At work, I have been known to blurt out at random intervals, "You're not Jonesy," in the same low rasp that Thomas Jane uses when he wants people to know that he's serious or scared or constipated.

October 17, 2007 12:58 AM

DB said:

This movie may be terrible, but it's more entertaining than a fair share of the good movies I've seen, and it's an uncannily faithful distillation of all the worst qualities of Stephen King's writing (I've never read it, but I'd bet anything that Beaver's immortal line "Bitch-in-a-buzzsaw! I've heard some mighty burps in my time, but that's the blue-ribbon baby!" is taken verbatim from the novel).  And if nothing else it was great to see the Quabbin Reservoir, which I grew up near, finally get an onscreen shout-out in this of all films (even if the scenes that take place there don't appear to have actually been shot there).

Also, I'm surprised neither this entry nor any of the comments so far mention Morgan Freeman's solemnly ludicrous performance.  His eventual Lifetime Achievement Oscar highlight reel had better include "YOU'VE CROSSED THE CURTIS LINE!"

October 17, 2007 11:29 AM

borstalboy said:

For a good late Kasdan film, check out the underappreciated MUMFORD.

October 17, 2007 1:21 PM

Kent M. Beeson said:

Oh sweet jesus, I just noticed Donnie Wahlberg's oversized Sox jacket.  This story really was King's junk drawer, wasn't it?

October 17, 2007 1:30 PM

Paul Clark said:

Unfortunately, I was starting to hit my word limit, so the lame dialogue and Freeman's terrible performance (and rockin' eyebrows) had to go.  But yeah, they're bot pretty awful.

October 17, 2007 6:30 PM

Paul Clark said:

BOTH pretty awful, even.

October 17, 2007 6:31 PM

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