'Doctor Sleep' A Review

Doctor Sleep is a horror/thriller based on the Stephen King novel, a sequel to The Shining. The film opens shortly after the events of the Kubrick adaptation of the original. Young Danny Torrence is still being plagued by ghosts from the Overlook and is taught by the apparition of Dick Hallorann how to trap them. Fast forward Danny is now Dan(Ewan McGregor) and has a drinking problem, he hits bottom and winds up in a small New Hampshire town where he begins to build a life and telepathically befriends a young girl Abra(Kyliegh Curran). Concurrently psychic vampires in caravans lead by Rose The Hat(Rebecca Ferguson) criss-cross the country in search of kids with the Shining to consume. A confrontation is inevitable.

McGregor is excellently cast and gives his patented blend of leading man panache with pathos and vulnerability but he's unable to transcend the inexplicably fever-paced plotting and sheer volume of exposition that's packed into the script. Likewise Curran is exceedingly effective, layered and at times startlingly savage, but left with little to no arch given how quickly the story speeds along. Ferguson as the languid heavy is delightfully off putting but is also hamstrung by the material. The supporting cast are all pitch perfect in their roles, Cliff Curtis and Zahn McClarnon especially, but dimension to any and all of the characters is sacrificed in the service of bloated narrative.

The biggest problem is the writer/director Mike Flanagan endeavors to do too much and is to beholden to both the book Doctor Sleep and Kubrick's version of The Shining. And in trying to fit in virtually the entire plot of the book Doctor Sleep as well as bridge the discrepancies in the endings to the book and the movie The Shining it seems there is little left that is actually Flanagan's. In order to fit in all the story of the book and all the visual nods(ie exact replicas) to the movie the film rockets through the first two hours of it's protracted run time at such a speed that the characters at its center are neglected. The film only slows down its pacing in the final half hour when, of course, we inevitably return to the Overlook Hotel but by that time it is so predictable it loses its impact and any interest in its characters is mostly squandered.

An ambitious adaptation with incredible potential is hamstrung by the long shadow of both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick and the lack of Flanagan's personal touch.

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