As a film, "Riding the Bullet" is a tale of two halves.
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Stephen King. Arguably one of the most prolific writers of this generation, he´s dozens of books to his credit in a host of genres, traditionally horror. Dozens of films have been spawned directly from his work and a host of others inspired by his unique vision. The problem is that it´s very hard to adapt King´s unique voice and the extensive amount he writes into a movie that clocks in at less than 3 hours. While there have been good, or at very least decent, adaptations the truth is that most people would be better off reading his books to get the complete story.
2004´s "Riding The Bullet" is a moderately-budgeted independent feature created by director Mick Garris has worked on King´s material before. In fact half of his career is dedicated to making miniseries like, "The Stand," "The Shining," and "Sleepwalkers." He works mainly in the medium of television, this being his third feature in a 20-year career.
Alan (Jonathan Jackson) is your typical late-60s archetype. He smokes weed, has an artistic soul and is going through an identity crisis as he tries to determine what is happening in the world around him. He loses himself in fantasies and daydreams, playing out scenarios both morbid and ideal in his mind, losing track of reality. The year is 1969, the Vietnam War is in full swing as are the protests against it. John Lennon is touring and people still have dreams that the Beatles will get together again. It´s a time when exploration of ones self and the experiencing a fresh view of the world was encouraged for the counterculture. All of the settings and props set the period tone without becoming anachronistic or self-referential.
Alan is riveted into this mold. His art instructor recognizes extreme talent, wishing he would get beyond his morbid fixation with death instilled at an early age with the death of Alan´s father. Al´s girlfriend Jessica (Ericka Christensen) is a free-spirit, wanting no accoutrements or strings in their relationship. She recognizes Alan´s brilliance but cannot seem to understand his view of the world around him. Al´s friends are your typical draft-dodgers, staying in college only to retain their deferment, and though they aren´t particularly germane to the story are a nice flourish.
The story itself picks up about 20 minutes in. Alan, despondent after Jessica tells him she wants to see other people, dances with the devil in the pale moon light, and flirts with suicide in a bathtub, unintentionally slicing his wrist when a mob bursts in to give him a surprise birthday party. Soon after emerging from the hospital Alan gets a call from a family friend, that his mother had a stroke and is in the hospital. Forgoing a trip to Canada to see John Lennon, Alan sets out to hitchhike the 120 miles to the Maine hospital where his mother lay.
The film is a truly metaphorical journey about his trip and a character study about self-discovery. Alan has long had a wall around him that limits his emotional reactions. It began when Alan, as a 6-year old boy, came home from school to celebrate receiving a gold star only to confront the unexpected death of his father. It´s an incident that would scar most people and one that defines Alan for years to come. Along his journey Alan comes to an understanding of himself by confronting, literally and figuratively, his ghosts. The movie is a character study wrapped traipsing about as a horror film.
Al takes rides from a host of characters, including a weekend hippie who poses as a member of the counterculture, an old farmer with "leaky plumbing" who has recently lost his wife, and a brash young man who Alan is certain he´s seen a picture of before… on his grave. Ultimately Alan is given the ride of his life, quite literally, and forced to make a decision usually left to a higher power.
As a film, "Riding the Bullet" is a tale of two halves. The first portion of the film is wonderfully moody and atmospheric, a true character study. Creative editing leaves the audience in suspense as to the rationale for the events that are occurring, wondering if they are innocuous meetings that are heightened by Al´s active imagination or something more sinister. The scares aren´t "cheap" per se, but there are a few good jump moments that occur due to unexpected bangs and pops. The first half of the flick is slow-moving but seems to have a true sense of purpose through discovery.
The second half of the movie degenerates into a cheap suspense story, one that you´ve heard a hundred times. The kid´s riding in the car with the man he figures out is a ghost who makes him a ghastly proposition. When I was ten it worked on me sitting around a campfire, not so much in this movie. That´s not to say there weren´t good ideas expressed, propositions dealing with the nature of free will and our ability to disguise truth for the greater good; it´s just that it felt so routine. The first half of the film was fresh and different. It had the atmosphere of Stephen King. The second half may have reflected the book, but it was so haphazardly rushed that its ultimate intentions were lost on this viewer. It doesn´t help that the movie had the standard expository Stephen King coda that feels so inordinately out of place and drags the movie on well beyond where it should have ended.
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[release]15550[/release]