Why I Love... Doctor Sleep

I imagine how much you’ll enjoy DOCTOR SLEEP (2019) will rest a lot on how familiar you are, and how you feel about, Stanley Kubrick’s infamous adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, THE SHINING (1980). Personally, I am not a fan of Kubrick’s film. While I will be the first to hold it up as a marvel of production design and exalt its technical brilliance, the film itself has always left me cold. I won’t dwell too much on what I consider to be the failings of such a universally acclaimed piece of cinema but for my viewing experience, the fundamental flaw is the film’s treatment of its central characters. Kubrick’s depiction of Jack, Wendy and Danny Torrance results in, for this viewer, some of the least likeable or interesting characters in horror cinema history. Jack Nicholson is typically excellent in the lead role, but the choice to depict Jack Torrance as so thoroughly resentful of his familial obligations from the very beginning shifts a lot of the emotional weight of the film onto the character of his wife Wendy and actress Shelley Duvall is simply not up to the task. Simultaneously, Kubrick chooses to omit much of the novel’s thematic material and as such Jack’s turn to madness is less of a descent than one small step. Just to clarify, I am not by any means a fanatical follower of Stephen King but I will say that I found his original novel much more compelling than Kubrick’s film as it affords Jack a greater degree of nuance and character motivation. King’s THE SHINING is a meditation on alcoholism, cycles of abuse and the pressures of family. Kubrick chooses to shift the thematic focus away from these ideas and onto the setting, the Overlook Hotel, itself. This choice caused a gulf between Kubrick and King that would not only lead the celebrated author to shepherding his own adaptation of the book, a terrible 1997 TV series, but would provide the groundwork for King’s decision to return to the material with his 2013 novel, DOCTOR SLEEP.

There is a degree to which the sequel novel feels like an attempt by the author to reclaim the legacy of THE SHINING as his own but the decision to focus on a now adult Danny Torrance and the emotional scars he still carries from his childhood generates enough worthwhile material to merit the novels existence, even if it remains one of King’s lesser works. With such a legacy then, it was almost inevitable that Hollywood would seek to bring this story from the page to the screen but that is a task that is easier said than done. Any cinematic adaptation of DOCTOR SLEEP would not only have to wrestle with realizing King’s writing on film in a satisfying manner, a task that has eluded many filmmakers, but it would also have to navigate a path towards dealing with Kubrick’s film, which still lives large in public consciousness. To accomplish these goals without appearing to be at best little more than an exercise in nostalgia or at worse a cynical cash grab would require exactly the right filmmaker (even Spielberg failed in this endeavour by reducing THE SHINING to little more than a video game level in 2018’s READY PLAYER ONE). Luckily enough the right director for the job had recently finished work on another, allegedly unfilmable, adaptation of Stephen King’s writing.

Mike Flanagan is still a low-profile director to the general public, but I expect this to change in the next few years. From 2013 to 2016 he directed no less than 4 well regarded horror movies in OCULUS (2013), HUSH (2016), BEFORE I WAKE (2016) and OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL (2016). No that isn’t a typo, he released 3 of those films in the same year and they are all worth watching. But it his most recent work for Netflix that has yielded his most positive responses with both GERALD’S GAME (2017) and the TV series THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE (2018) receiving warm critical receptions. The former of these is most relevant to this conversation as the confidence with which he brought King’s seemingly unadaptable 1992 novel to the screen revealed him to be the perfect man to tackle DOCTOR SLEEP’s varied, and at times conflicting, critical demands.

Key to the success of Flanagan’s film is his handling of the character of Danny Torrance. In Kubrick’s film Danny is, whilst central to the plot and several of the most unsettling scenes, somewhat of an afterthought as a character in his own right. In Kubrick’s defence much of this can be attributed to the limitations of working with child actors, but the overall effect is too de-emphasise the character’s reactions to his father’s descent into madness. Considering then that Danny is essentially a cinematic blank slate but any actor would still have to interpret the legacy of the events of THE SHINING through their performance, the casting of the role would be essential. Luckily the director found the perfect leading man in Ewan McGregor. Now it might be unfair of me to say this but I’ve always found McGregor to be somewhat inconsistent in the quality of his cinematic output. While he is sensational in films such as TRAINSPOTTING (1996), YOUNG ADAM (2003) and T2 TRAINSPOTTING (2017) he has struggled to find success in many of his roles of the last 10 years. It’s with great pleasure then that I can say without reservation that his work in DOCTOR SLEEP is some of the finest of his career. His performance as Danny is filled with a quiet stillness that evidences a lifetime of pain, regret and trauma. I would never presume an actor’s motivations but if McGregor wasn’t calling upon his own past struggles with addiction to convey Danny’s alcoholism, I’d be very surprised. If there was any justice in the film industry this performance would merit the actor consideration come awards season. But the film doesn’t succeed upon the strength of McGregor’s performance alone, instead it works so well due to how immaculately it structures its narrative around his efforts.

It’s probably worth taking a brief aside to discuss narrative structure with regards to film. Now this is probably the most nervous I’ve ever been writing for this blog as while I feel like I can explain the concept sufficiently in person, putting it down on the page just seems to lack the same authority. As a result, I have cribbed some of the following language from other sources just to help with clarity. In very basic terms, narrative structure describes the relationship between the content of a story and the means by which the story is being told, the plot. If story is about character, settings, events and conflicts the plot is concerned with how and when these issues are address and resolved. You would think such a basic yet vital concept would be held with the highest regard by screenwriters and filmmakers of any calibre but all too often one of these factors is given emphasis over the other to the detriment of the whole. For example, “what is going to happen next?” far too often takes precedence over “why is any of this happening?” in major Hollywood releases but that is an essay for another time. With regards to DOCTOR SLEEP then, I consider its ultimate creative success to be how effectively it utilises narrative structure to blend the needs of the plot with the twists and turns of Danny’s character arc.

* I will be getting into “spoiler” territory from here on out so if you haven’t yet had chance to see the film and are particularly sensitive to spoilers, feel free to come back and continue reading once you’ve had the chance to see it for yourself. I won’t be going into too much detail, with the exception of certain character beats and the reveal of a “twist” in the 3^rd act, but I’d hate to ruin the first-time experience of the film for anyone.

Traditionally, the first act of a film contains the introduction of all the main characters and situations as well as a brief exploration of their backstories and personalities and DOCTOR SLEEP is no different. But while in addition to Danny we are also introduced to the other principal players, Abra, a young child with similar powers to Danny and Rose, the film’s antagonist, the primary focus remains on Danny. In fact the first act of DOCTOR SLEEP could serve as a short film in its own right following Danny from his troubled childhood in the immediate aftermath of THE SHINING, through his self-destructive adult life and ultimately to a place of contentment in his self-appointed role of providing comfort and support to the elderly in their last moments (this is where he earns the nickname ‘Doctor Sleep’). Yet theses scenes also serve as an early introduction for how Flanagan will approach Kubrick’s legacy in his own film. The ghosts that plague young Danny are depicted in the same visual style as Kubrick adopted, as a result the Overlook haunts Danny the same way THE SHINING haunts DOCTOR SLEEP. A key aspect for Danny’s character in these early scenes is how he is taught to deal with these ghosts, by locking them away in his mind, a clear thematic analogy for the repressed emotions so often found in survivors of abuse. We next meet Danny as an adult and the unaddressed events of his childhood have turned him into a wholly selfish and self-destructive force. In fact, he only seeks the help necessary to break these cycles after his choices have tragic consequences for other people. Following another jump forward in time we reach the key moment of the film in understanding what Flanagan is exploring about cycles of abuse and addiction. Danny speaks proudly of his struggles at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, now 8 years sober, and in any other film this would be the culmination of his arc. Yet, when Danny speaks about the source of his addiction, his relationship with his father, the falsehood of his growth is revealed. He describes his addiction and his temper as the only way he had to feel closer to his father, and even compares his sobriety with the 5 months sober Jack had achieved at the start of THE SHINING. Yet he never addresses the key differences between father and son. Kubrick’s Jack Torrance was a man who drank because of his failures as a writer and the resentment he felt towards his family. In THE SHINING Nicholson portrays the sober Jack with little affection or patience for his family, entirely preoccupied with his own success as a writer. Flanagan’s Danny on the other hand is fundamentally a good person who drinks to escape the traumas of his childhood, many directly caused by his father. That Danny can’t yet see the difference shows that he is only treating the symptoms of his trauma and not the underlying cause. As a reminder, all of this material is only the first act of DOCTOR SLEEP, and Danny’s misunderstanding of himself will not only fuel much of the conflict of the second act, buts its resolution in the third act provides the film with its high point.

The second act of a film forms the bulk of the story and contains the majority of the conflict, usually instigated by an “inciting incident”. Here, that incident is the murder of a young boy named Bradley by Rose and her cult like family of vampiric immortals who feed on the “steam” of gifted people like Danny, Abra and Bradley. A crime which is unintentionally witnessed by Abra. I won’t go into too much plot detail here other than to say that Danny finds himself caught between these two strong-willed characters and the different world views they represent. Rose and her kin represent the notion that survival matters above all else while Abra believes that if you can help someone and see justice done, you are obligated too. As a result, Danny finds himself torn between the person he once was (who prioritised survival) and the person he wants to become (who uses his gifts to help people). His fear of Rose and his initial reluctance to help Abra reveals that he has not yet become the person he wants to be (because he hasn’t yet truly processed his own trauma) and as a result his initial attempts to help Abra are doomed to failure. That his subsequent spiral into despair leads him straight back to the brink of a bottle of whisky further exposes the false victory that his sobriety represents.

Traditionally the third act of a film is entirely focused on the resolution of the ideas and conflicts raised up to that point and DOCTOR SLEEP’s approach to that goal of resolution is note perfect. By this stage in the film the demands of the plot, Danny’s continued character growth and the expectations of the audience all demand the same thing, an inevitable return to The Overlook Hotel and it’s at this point that Flanagan’s film surpasses King’s text. The novel of THE SHINING ends with the destruction of The Overlook Hotel, so King’s Danny must seek his resolutions elsewhere, but thankfully Kubrick’s ruminations on the nature of evil demanded the hotel survive. As a result this cinematic sequel affords Flanagan a greater degree of narrative potential than King had when writing his novel. The scenes of Danny returning to The Overlook are hauntingly beautiful in how they invoke Kubrick’s film but there is one scene in particular I must discuss in some detail for the purposes of this essay so be forewarned, even more spoilers incoming. Upon entering the Overlook’s empty lounge and taking a seat at the bar Danny, showing little surprise, begins a conversation with the hotel’s spectral bartender, Lloyd, the same bartender that his father conversed with shortly before the onset of madness. That Flanagan chooses to make his Lloyd visually resemble Jack Torrance’s look from THE SHINING is a wonderful creative choice that allows for the key thematic moment of the film. Danny speaks to Jack/Lloyd with familiarity but is rebuffed by the bartender (as is often the case, the abuser accepts no knowledge of his abuses) all the while refusing his offer of a drink. As Danny begins to realize that Jack/Lloyd (and subsequently his own father before his death) has no interest in him or what happened to his mother, Henry Thomas’ expertly judged performance as the bartender takes a turn and reveals some of the anger and contempt Jack felt for his family. Danny’s final, tearful, rejection of his “medicine” (a glass of whisky) is also the final rejection of his abuser (Jack) and the culmination of his arc. Much of the power of this scene would have been lost had Flanagan not chosen to visually reference Kubrick and as a result it is arguably the highlight of the film (it certainly is for me). Danny is now ready to face not only the threat of Rose, but also the manipulations of the Overlook, and become the guardian that Abra needs him to be.

Ultimately, Mike Flanagan’s DOCTOR SLEEP is a positive, and even uplifting, film about the struggles with trauma and addiction that often afflict the victims of abuse. It argues that growth and healing are possible but only if you are willing to do the work and undergo honest introspection. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a perfect film by any means. The runtime is overly long, adherence to details from King’s novel sometimes causes the plot to seem unfocused and other than a fantastic performance by Rebecca Ferguson, we learn very little about Rose despite her screen time, but these are just minor complaints. Overall, I am endlessly impressed with Mike Flanagan’s ability to weave together Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King’s conflicting creative impulses whilst honouring them both, without losing his own creative voice in the process. I expect big things from Flanagan’s career and would imagine that DOCTOR SLEEP’s reputation will only grow in years to come. It’s a truly exemplary entry into the horror genre and shows that same genre’s potential to explore a wide variety of emotions beyond just fear. It’s a great film that can be enjoyed by both horror and mainstream audiences alike. I love it.