Misery

The film "misery" is a thriller film that was produced in 1990 about a famous novelist (Paul Sheldon) who is "rescued" and enslave by an obsessive fan (Annie Wilkes). The film revoveles around mainly only these two characters so their background and personalities are fully explored.

Paul Sheldon


The opening of the film shows Paul finishing the last instalment of his fictional book series in a snow covered log cabin, and celebrates by having a cigarette, even though he doesn't smoke, and a glass of champaign. This shows his character has a small "ritual" in which he performs as a celebration, at this point its quite evident he isn't married as he has no wedding ring, however seems to enjoy the fact he is alone in a quiet room. Paul puts the finished book pages in a tattered portfolio and gets in his iconic Ford Mustang, a car only driven in films by the protagonist, such as Steve mcqueen in "Bullet", Gone in 60 seconds and in the Bond film "Diamonds are Forever".

As Paul drives down the road he loses control during a freak blizzard. He however may have been able to prevent this by stopping his car. The character however seems to exited by the finish of his book and series that he ignores the danger. Paul is dragged to safety by a large women from his car. He then wakes up in a single bed in much pain greeted by a happy, smiley lady. They exchange introductions with Paul being very thankful, however he is slightly unease by her saying she "followed" him.

Throughout the film Paul gets more and more desperate to evade annie as she beings to show her real colours. However Paul's condition allows him to do little since both of his legs are broken. He does however start to manipulate Annie as he tries to drug her with powder from capsule tablets by putting them in a glass of wine at a dinner he asked her join him in. At this point we know that Paul is now capable of murder to allow himself to survive. You also find out he's very good at controlling Annie's temper, she's insanely in love with him so wouldn't want to hurt him, until the point she discovers he was able to escape the room in his wheel chair. After, his legs are re broken by Annie as a way of keeping him for her self, and forces him to re write his book due to not like the end of his first draft.

Paul eventually escapes Annie many months of torment and bone braking, however to do so had to kill her by using a heavy typewriter to the head whilst still recovering from his re broken legs which Annie once again crippled.

From this film we can work out many of Paul's ethics and morals, following is a list of attributes and morals Paul have.

Attributes

• Paul appears to be an fairly ordinary middle aged man.
• He is a well know writer of the "misery" novels.
• Wears smart clothing (before the crash)
• Types is work on a classic type writer
• Respects people who help him
• He is very smart, being able to make tools out of items around him.
• Patient

Morals and ethics 

• Paul's wouldn't kill anyone unless his own life is at risk. 
• Paul believes work should be rewarded (his personal celebration after writing his final book).
• He believes all good things should come to an end (the last misery book).
• He appears to respect help when given to him, however likes being alone.
• He can minipluate people (make Annie feel desired) 

Overall we sympathise for Paul as he cannot appear to leave the situation he is in, even though he does kill Annie in the end we don't as an audience care as we believe it's his only way out. He has emotionally been scared by his traumatic experience as towards the end of the film he gets flash backs from his time in captivity.

Annie Wilkes 

Annie at first appears to be a large happy woman with a desire to help people, this image is made stronger by her wear a cross around her neck and that she was also once a nurse. At first she enjoys taking care of her favourite writer however Paul gets very uneasy when she declares that she had been following him in the blizzard in which he crashed in. Throughout the film she gets more and more desperate to keep Paul as her own so goes to lengths such as tieing him down in bed and re breaking his legs.

Paul discovers after leaving his room that Annie killed many new born children and went to prison in her past and that she was also lonely as her husband died. This is a complete opposite of what we learn from the first half of the film.

Throughout the film Annie's desires spiral out of control. From helping Paul to recover to almost murdering him just so she could keep him for her self. This also brings out the bad in her, including lieing and the burning of Paul's Novel because she doesn't like the ending.

Annie also for most of the ending of the film is shown in many low angle shots expressing how much power she has compared to Paul's, especially when she is looking down at him in the stairwell of the basement.

Attributes 

• Large woman in her late 30's 
• Enjoys the thought of romance 
• Wears a cross symbolising religious beliefs.
• Usually has a very large smile or frown
• Has a short temper
• Apologetic  
• Will do anything to get her own way, including torture and murder. 
• Loses her temper qucikly

Morals and Ethics

Annie doesn't appear to have many morals, however this is not true. At the start of the film she puts time and effort into bringing Paul around to good health with an obvious good intention. Her actions however then on result in no sympathy for her when she is killed. Ultimately however she is very alone, and this is the reason for the captivity, ultimately i don't think she wanted everything to become out of control however proceeded to try and get what she wanted, a new romance (she appears to want to be like the character in the book).

She also likes respect, she demands this from Paul almost straight away, and when given relishes in her accomplishment as it make her feel desired. Paul plays on this to prolong the time in which he may be murdered and to give himself longer to calculate his plans of escape.

Overall the Film plays with two very unique characters and switches the gender power roles in giving the seemingly innocent friendly women all the power and the clever and wealthy male character no power. We ultimately feel sorry for Paul in his circumstance but looking deeper into Annies past we can work out why and how she became so insane.